


Cellphones

by Fliers (Cruiser)



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cross-Dimensional, F/F, Keit-Ai, Multiple Universes Colliding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 10:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10332422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cruiser/pseuds/Fliers
Summary: When Miku gets school idol Luka's number, she thought her troubles were over. However, calling someone is more troublesome than it seems, especially when the Luka she called isn't the Luka she knows.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Fanfiction.net, but I thought I'd post it here as well.

Miku was perplexed.

This, in and of itself, was nothing new. She was someone who was perplexed very often. However, today, she was on a different level of perplexed - the sort of level that was merging rapidly on freaked out. She stared at her cell phone, hands trembling as the numbers displayed there burned themselves in her mind.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "Is this actually...her cell phone number?"

A summary: Miku, Hatsune Miku, was a student at Crypton High. She was friends with Rin and Len, the twins who lived across the street. She was a second-year student who had just obtained a new cellphone, and she was horribly in love with the school idol, Megurine Luka.

Megurine Luka was a third year, and in Miku's eyes, she was perfect at everything. Not only was she beautiful, with light blue eyes and flowing locks of long hair, she was also intelligent, mature, well-mannered, elegant, and really, Miku could go on and on listing her good qualities, much to the frustration of her friends.

"If you like her so much," said Len one lunch, his face clearly bored from yet another one of Miku's long gushes over Luka, "why don't you confess to her?"

"There's no way that'll happen," Rin said as she picked at her food, her face similarly resigned. "Miku just doesn't have the guts."

"I...I do _so_ have guts!" Miku said through her mouthful of rice. She pointed her chopsticks at Rin and Len. "Anyways, I can't confess to her!" - putting them back down - "She's always busy after school with student council, and plus, she doesn't even know me. It's impossible. Totally impossible."

"I don't see how it's impossible," said Len. "You can leave a letter in her locker. You could even try to talk to her, at least."

The mere thought of talking to Luka was daunting. Miku shivered. She could just imagine it - walking up to Luka with a nervous, skittery smile on her face, one hand half-raised, Luka staring at her blankly.

"H-hey Luka," Miku would squeak with the debonair charm of a dying squirrel.

Seconds that seemed like hours would pass, nothing but Luka staring at Miku and Miku staring at Luka. Then, Luka would clear her throat.

"Your tie isn't knotted properly," said Luka, and then she would leave Miku standing there alone in the cold, uncaring wastes of the hallways of Crypton High...

Yes. Miku was sure that that was what was going to happen.

"I can't talk to her," said Miku.

Len sighed and ran his hand through his blonde hair. "Miku...we're your friends. We want to help you. All you have to do is...talk to Luka."

"If you're too scared to talk to her in person," said Rin, "can't you get her number? Or are you too scared to do that too?" Rin leaned back in her chair, smirking a little. Miku glared at her.

"I'm not _scared,"_ she said. "I'm just..."

"...scared," Rin finished.

Miku slumped back in her seat. "I don't have her cell phone number...I don't even know how to get it!"

"Can't you just ask her friends?" Len asked. "Like Gumi and Meiko?"

"...there's no way a second-year like me can approach them."

"Miku," said Rin.

"Yes?"

"Don't be a pussy."

xxx

Len's advice had not, in fact, helped Miku much at all. After she finished eating, Miku bravely set off in search of Luka's friends, only to turn right back around and walk away in the other direction once she saw them coming down the hall. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Luka, or that she didn't want Luka's cell phone number. It was simply the fact that Miku was...basically...

"A pussy," said Rin with disgust as she walked home with Miku and Len. "You couldn't even talk to her _friends?"_

"You try being in love with someone," Miku muttered. "It's hard."

Len exhaled. "Still, you've really been dragging this on. It's not _that_ hard..."

"For someone like Miku, she'll probably only get Luka's number by finding it on some scrap of paper somewhere," Rin snickered. "Like that has a chance of happening!"

Miku said nothing. She looked up at the sky, a deep orange, as she walked on. Why hadn't she asked Luka's friends for her phone number? Stupid. She should've. What did she have to lose?...well, other than maybe Luka's friends telling Luka about this creepy underclassman who asked for her cell phone number, but still. Even Miku knew it couldn't go on like this. She either had to master her fear, or give up on Luka. Considering how Miku had been in love with her at first sight, the latter was completely repellent. The former, however...Miku clenched her fists.

She had to get that phone number.

xxx

The next morning, after breakfast, Miku dashed out of her house, panting slightly as she checked her watch. It was 7:50. She had ten minutes to make it to school. Right then. Miku sped up her pace - her high school was a bit of a walk - and at a crossing light, waited impatiently for it to turn green.

"Late for school?" asked an old woman next to her, her face wrinkled and friendly.

Miku shook her head. "No...I'm just in a rush."

The old woman shook her head in response. "People these days are always in a rush. What happened to taking things slowly?"

Miku blinked at the old woman, unsure of what to say.

"Nowadays, high schoolers only care about things like playing video games or watching anime," she continued. "Back in my day, people cared more about each other. Now all you hear about is people bullying others..."

"Most people aren't like that," Miku said. The light, she observed, was taking an awfully long time to turn green. Everything around her was utterly silent.

"Really?"

"Of course! It's just because the media is everywhere, so you think things are really bad, but they actually aren't," said Miku.

The old woman nodded, staring at Miku thoughtfully. "Well," she said, "you certainly have a naive worldview. What is the thing you want most right now?"

Many things flashed through Miku's mind, but only one stood out. "I want a phone number," said Miku, plainly.

The woman's eyebrows rose in faint surprise. "A...phone number?"

"Y-yeah," Miku said, nodding. "There's this...person I like. I...I'm not brave enough to confess to them in person, but maybe...you know, if I had their number, I could talk to them easier...that's what I think, at least," Miku ended hurriedly, suddenly embarrassed by her desire. It sounded so immature and childish once it's been said, and she looked away, embarrassed.

The old woman smiled. "You want to connect with someone then, that's it?"

"Yeah," said Miku. "I just want to, um, be with that person."

"If you hold onto that desire, I'm sure you'll have it some day," said the old woman, and the light turned green.

Miku blinked. For a moment, while she was talking with the old woman, it had been pretty silent, the only things she heard the whistling of the wind and the sound of the old woman's voice. Now, however, the beeps of cars honking, the sound of people walking to work, to school, to other destinations, the twittering of birds, the sound of life being lived, all of that rose around her. Baffled, disoriented, Miku stood still for a moment. What had happened? Miku had been sure it was quiet a few moments earlier...

She shook her head. Nothing had happened, she told herself. She had just gotten caught up in the conversation, that's all. Whenever she started talking about Luka, she zoned out anyways. Nothing special happened at all. That in mind, Miku set off to school, glancing around for the old woman, but she seemed to have been swept up in the crowd.

xxx

"Wow, just like you to have weird conversations with old ladies at crossways," Rin laughed. "She sounded loopy. What was with all that 'naive worldview' and 'thing you desire most' stuff?"

"I don't know," said Miku, glancing about anxiously for Gumi or Meiko. The two of them were waiting in the hall during lunch break, waiting to ambush either of Luka's friends. It had, naturally, all been Rin's idea. "C-can we go now?"

"Miku, you have no guts at all," said Rin. "Seriously, this is Luka we're talking about. You have to have some courage if you're going after the most popular girl in school!" she slapped Miku on the back and Miku groaned, eyes closed. All of that bravery she thought she had when walking back home from school yesterday was draining out of her quicker than anything. All she wanted now was to turn around and walk back to her own classroom like nothing happened. Miku's legs twitched, but Miku forced them to stay still. Think of Luka, she told herself, and the girl's face appeared in her mind. You're doing this for Luka. It's just her phone number. No big deal, right?

"Ah, I think that's Gumi," said Rin, and Miku froze up.

"Wh-wha-" before she had the time to protest, Rin had shoved her directly into the path of Gumi. When Miku looked up, she saw herself staring right into Gumi's eyes. "O-Oh! I'm sorry!" Miku backed up quickly and looked around, but Rin was nowhere to be seen.

"It's okay! What is it?" asked Gumi, taking the sudden run-in with Miku rather well.

Miku's face flushed red. "E-er, well...um..." she looked about the hall. It almost felt as though everyone was looking at her, even though they weren't. "I uh...do you have Luka's phone number?"

"Oh...do you want her phone number?" said Gumi.

Miku could almost die of relief, hearing those words. "Yes! Yes I do! Thank you so much! I-"

"I can't give it to you," said Gumi, and she put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Man, Luka's number is what everyone stops me for nowadays. If I give it to you, I'll have to give it to everyone, and you know how popular she is...she'll be getting calls every minute! I'm sorry, but I just can't give it to you."

Miku opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Maybe you can try talking to her?" said Gumi, in an attempt to be helpful.

Her throat felt closed up.

"Or leave a letter-oh, but she gets a lot of those nowadays. Hmmm."

"I...I can't..." Miku forced out. "You can't give me...?"

"Nope. Sorry. I think you should talk to her though!" Gumi nodded, emphasizing those words. "She's really not that hard to talk to. Anyways, I have to go. See you later," she raised a hand and left, leaving Miku standing there, eyes wide, staring after her.

"Wow," said Rin, popping up from behind the water fountain. "As expected from an upperclassman...I guess it can't be he-"

"Please don't finish that sentence," said Miku.

xxx

The world seemed drained of color. Miku sat with her head on her desk. She had failed in getting Luka's phone number. Len's suggestion had been stopped before it could even begin, and Gumi had implied that sending a letter would be just as useless, since Luka got so many of them.

"What do I do..." Miku groaned. Her cell phone beeped and dully Miku dug in her pocket and took it out. She stared at the display. It was a reminder to call Luka - Miku had set it the day before, back when she actually had hopes of getting Luka's number.

"What's the point of that? I don't even have her number!" Miku said to the cell phone, but the cell phone said nothing back. Sighing, Miku deleted the reminder and scrolled down her contacts list, eyes dully counting down who she had. Rin, Len, Neru (not that Miku talked to her much, but Neru had everyone's number), Luka, Haku...

Wait. What?

Miku quickly scrolled up and stared, breath caught in her throat. Luka's number. There it was, an entry, neat and normal and everything. _Megurine Luka._

And here, we find ourselves back at the beginning - Miku staring at Luka's phone number, trembling.

"This is...actually her phone number...?" The area code looked a little unfamiliar, but Miku wouldn't be surprised if Luka lived in a different area. Her hands were shaking. Was she dreaming? How could she have gotten Luka's number? How? There was no way. She had never even really talked to Luka before either, so...

Maybe it really was a dream. To check, Miku pressed the call button and quickly put it to her ear, her heart thumping. It rang, one, two, three times, before getting picked up.

"Hello?"

"Is this Megurine Luka?" Miku asked.

A brief, confused pause. "Yes, this is Luka speaking."

"U-um," Miku stammered, suddenly nervous after the clear confirmation. Her heart was beating quicker than she thought possible, her face hot. "I...I'm Miku. Hatsune Miku! E-er, I just wanted to ask-"

A short intake of breath. "You're...you're _Hatsune Miku!"_

Miku blinked. Why was Luka so surprised? Dread stirred in her gut. "Yeah, I'm Miku."

"You actually...you have my number? I never thought you would...actually call..."

"Huh?" Had Luka been purposefully avoiding her? Miku's stomach sank. "Oh...I'm sorry-"

"Don't apologize!" Luka said quickly. "I'm happy you called. I just, well, how did you get my number?"

"I have no idea...it was just there."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

A silence stretched, and the pressure to say something more built in Miku more and more until it burst and she opened her mouth, but Luka was faster.

"I know this might seem a bit strange, all of a sudden," said Luka, "but...maybe, tomorrow, after school, do you want to hang out?"

"Eh?" Miku said. She couldn't quite believe what Luka had just asked her.

"O-of course, if you don't want to that's fine, but I-"

"It's fine! Of course it's fine!" Miku practically shouted into the phone. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that _Luka_ would be the one to ask _Miku_ out. Her heart was thumping hard, and Miku could hardly control the smile she had on her face. Luka asked her out. _Luka asked her out._ Miku could hardly believe it. "Where do you want to go?" Miku almost spilled her trash can as she leapt out of her chair, sending pens scattering on her desk as she grabbed a red marker and ran over to her calendar to commemorate the day officially.

"Anywhere you want," said Luka.

"I don't care," Miku excitedly circled the date - April 23rd. Tomorrow. It was a little pointless, circling the day right after today, but Miku did it anyway. "Anywhere is fine." Anywhere at all, it didn't matter as long as she was with Luka. All Miku wanted was to be with her. The happiness rising in her heart was too great to suppress. How was it possible that in the span of a few minutes her mood had changed from depression to complete happiness? Miku thanked whatever gods were out there for this chance. "Anywhere is...is _great_."

Luka laughed. It was a pleasant sound and Miku realized with a start that she had never heard Luka laugh before, not really. Miku decided at that moment that it was the most beautiful sound she ever heard.

"Well, we can meet up at school and talk about where to go then, after we had a night of thinking," said Luka.

"Y-yeah," said Miku, dazedly. Anything would've been fine with her. She could hardly wait for tomorrow. "That sounds good to me."

xxx

The next day was a bright, sunny morning that seemed to perfectly match Miku's mood. She dashed down the stairs, ate her breakfast, kissed her mother and father on their cheeks (to their vast bewilderment), and burst out the door. She left a little earlier today, because Luka told her that she usually left for school early, and judging from her address, Luka should be arriving at school right around...

Miku's feet stopped at the entrance to Crypton High. Now. Luka was walking down from the other side of the road, the sun casting what looked like a halo around her. Her pink hair shimmered in the light and her blue eyes were focused on the book she was reading.

"Luka!" Miku cried excitedly, waving her arms. Luka looked up.

Miku expected happy recognition in that gaze, expected a similar smile breaking out on Luka's face, but instead, what she got was a confused expression. Luka sped up her pace so that she was next to Miku.

"Excuse me," said Luka, her voice polite, "who are you?"

"...eh? We talked last night..." Miku said. Was Luka playing some kind of joke? "I'm Hatsune Miku, remember?" She smiled at her.

Luka was looking at Miku as though Miku had grown two heads. "I didn't talk with you last night."

Something jammed in Miku's brain. No way. That couldn't have been a dream. Miku was sure, absolutely certain, that she had talked to Luka last night. She even checked her call history this morning to make sure. There was no way she did not talk to Luka. Was Luka kidding? Miku tried again. "You...don't remember?"

Luka slowly shook her head. "I...I need to go now. I have an early meeting today."

At that moment, Miku's phone started to ring, the melody loud in the silence of the morning. Irritated, Miku fumbled for it. If it was Rin calling her about something stupid like forgetting her math homework, Miku would be so-

_Megurine Luka calling_

Miku stared at the phone. Her heart seemed to have stopped.

_Megurine Luka calling_

That was what the display said, no matter how many times she read it. The phone rang loudly in her hand. She stared at Luka, who had apparently excused herself while Miku was distracted. She was still reading.

Heart beating quicker, Miku swallowed as she stared at the display.

_Megurine Luka calling_

But Luka, the Luka here, wasn't calling her at all. Miku flipped open the phone and put it to her ear.

"We...we need to talk," said Luka over the phone, her voice shaken.

Miku glanced over at the Luka here, still reading as she entered the school.

"Yeah," said Miku, "we definitely do."


	2. Chapter 2

"Where are you?" Luka asked over the phone.

"Where am I? I'm at school! You just...ignored me!" Miku said, still staring at the door that Luka had disappeared behind. "Actually, you didn't remember me at all when I talked to you too. And you just walked into the school, and you weren't calling me either when you did!" The conflicting messages warred in Miku's head. Luka had called her, but Miku did not see her call. Luka was talking to her over the phone and knew her, but the Luka Miku had just talked to didn't. There were so many contradictions in what was happening; nothing added up. What was going on? It made no sense, no sense at all...

Then it hit her. It was a prank. A big, elaborate prank set up at her own expense. Miku started to laugh, weakly. "I get it...this is all some kind of joke, right?"

"What?"

"Okay, who are you? You can give it up. I know you're not Luka. I don't know how you managed to get your number in my phone, but if this is all some kind of prank-"

"I _am_ Luka," said the voice, utterly confused. "I don't see you anywhere, and this isn't a prank. I'm right outside the school gates. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No one's at the school gates other than me," Miku said. "This isn't funny, whoever you are."

"But I'm here...Crypton High, next to the plaque," the voice sounded increasingly frustrated. "This _isn't_ a prank."

Miku looked. She was standing right next to the plaque as well. If the voice she was talking to was actually Luka, they would be standing on the exact same place right now. Miku swallowed. The world lurched under her feet. It had to be a prank, it had to be, otherwise none of this was _possible._ But at the same time, what kind of prank would go so far as to insist that Miku's senses were deceiving her? Miku knew where she was standing...did she?

"What...?" Miku whispered.

"Please believe me," said the voice. "Ah-wait, there you are!" the voice picked up, happily, before suddenly becoming confused. "But...you're not on the phone?"

"I am on the phone," said Miku. Her mind was spinning. She put a hand on the wall to steady herself.

"But you're not! Look, you're right there. Do you have Bluetooth? I'm waving at you right now, maybe...wait, you're not looking over, Miku-"

"That's not me," said Miku, as something slow and immense dawned in her mind. She collected the facts, laid them out quickly in her head.

1\. This person's phone number appeared on her phone under mysterious circumstances.

2\. This person sounded a lot, if not exactly, like Luka.

3\. The Luka Miku knows does not recognize her.

4\. The Miku this Luka knows most likely does not recognize the other Luka.

5\. According to what the Luka on the phone said, the two of them are standing at the exact same place, but they can't see each other.

Miku's eyes widened.

"What...?" Luka-over-the-phone said. "What do you mean, that's not you?"

"Because right now," said Miku, "I'm standing next to the plaque of Crypton High."

"You just went into the school-"

"No, I didn't! I'm still standing outside."

"That's not possible," Luka sounded increasingly agitated, "I _just_ saw you walk inside, you can't possibly still be out-"

"Don't you get it!" Miku cried into the phone. "I don't know what's happening, but we're not...we're in different worlds!"

There was nothing but silence on the line, before slowly, Luka spoke once more. "You mean...we're in alternate universes?"

"Right."

A pause, then: "That's...crazy."

"It's the closest thing we have to making sense out of everything," said Miku, leaning against the wall fully now as she stared up at the sky. "Think about it. There's no other way to explain all this, unless it really is a big prank."

"But it's not..." Luka's voice was slow.

Miku shook her head. She didn't know much about science, or quantum mechanics, or alternate universes, or anything of that sort, so she had no way of explaining this. All she knew was that somehow, this happened. "I don't get it...but it's the only thing I can think of."

"Tell me about your world," said Luka, suddenly.

"Huh?"

"If we are in alternate universes, then some things have to be different," Luka's voice had suddenly become analytical, the way she would talk when she was explaining math problems to someone (not that Miku had ever eavesdropped on Luka helping others with math problems in the library, of course). "You have my number, I have your number, but the you I know doesn't know me, and the me you know doesn't know you. That's one difference right there."

"Yeah..." Miku said, slowly, turning it over in her head. If the Miku this Luka knows doesn't know her, and the Luka Miku knows doesn't know Miku...Miku thought back to last night, how this Luka had asked her out. That was something the Luka Miku knows would never do, especially not to a stranger. It seems like...

"Our positions are reversed," said Luka, seeming to come to the same conclusion.

"So you like Miku," said Miku. "I mean, the Miku in your world."

"Well...it's embarrassing when you say it straight out like that..."

"It's true though, right?" Miku felt a small smile tug at the corner of her lips, despite the crazy situation she was in. A flustered Luka wasn't one she was used to, and she sounded cute. Miku tried to imagine the cool, elegant class idol blushing and being embarrassed, and felt her cheeks heat up at the thought. Cute...too cute...

"Y-yeah...it's true," Luka mumbled.

"Then that means, we're the same!" Miku pushed herself off the wall. "We both like the other selves of the other world!"

"Well, yeah, but how does that help anything? It's not like we can see each other-"

"Don't you get it?" Miku clasped her cellphone in both hands now, too excited to let go. "We know ourselves better than anyone else, right?"

"R-right..."

"Then that means that we can give each other advice on how to win over ourselves! It's perfect! You can tell me about yourself to help me win over the Luka in my world, and I can tell you about myself so that you can win over the Miku in your world!"

A sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone. "That's true..."

"Right? Rin always says I'm scatterbrained, but I can be pretty fast on the uptake, huh?"

Luka laughed. "Yeah. You hang out with Rin a lot in your universe too, then?"

"Of course," said Miku. "Rin and Len live across the street from me, so we grew up together."

"Ah, that explains it," Luka said softly, as if to herself.

"What about Gumi and Meiko, then?"

"Oh, um, Meiko and I have been friends since we were little," said Luka. "So she can be a bit protective, because as a child I was really shy and quiet."

Miku could not imagine the popular school idol as a shy and quiet kid. "Really?"

A surprised laugh. "Yes, really. Why, is it really that shocking?"

"You just seem so _cool."_

"O-oh." Miku could almost sense Luka's blush over the phone. "I-I'm not cool, really."

Miku opened her mouth to reply, but then she spotted Rin and Len walking up towards her. Len was giving her a quizzical look and tapping his wrist in the universal 'time' signal. "Ah-I gotta go now, school is going to start in a few."

"You're right," Luka sounded surprised herself. "I need to get moving too. Call me later!"

Miku barely had time to say "Okay" and flip her phone shut before Rin slung her arm around Miku's shoulder. The blonde pushed her head over towards Miku's phone, and Miku quickly shoved it into her pocket.

"Who were you calling?" Rin asked, grinning. "Did _someone_ get a phone number after all?"

Such a simple question, but in this situation, Miku had absolutely no idea how to answer. She got Luka's phone number...but it wasn't _Luka's_ phone number. She decided to go for the simplest solution. "No, I didn't...I was just talking to uh, my mom." If she told Rin about the alternate universe, Rin would definitely think she was crazy...and then proceed to tease her forever.

"We were surprised when you weren't at your house this morning," Len said, looking a little miffed. "Your mom said you got up thirty minutes earlier than usual, too. What happened?"

Oh right. They usually walked to school and back home together, since they lived so close to each other. Miku thought rapidly for an excuse. "The sun was just really nice today, you know? Ahaha...ha..." her laughter died as Len and Rin looked at her with eerily alike unimpressed expressions.

"It's cloudy," said Rin. "You're really scatterbrained sometimes..."

"We should really get to school now," said Len. "The gates close in a few minutes, and we still need to get to class."

"Crap!" Rin let go of Miku. "We gotta get a move on!"

Miku watched as Rin and Len ran off towards the gate, before shaking her head and running after them, her thoughts full of nothing but Luka and Luka.

xxx

_From: Megurine Luka_  
To: Hatsune Miku  
Did you get this text?

"Hey, what're you staring at?" Rin asked, hand on her cheek. "You've been really preoccupied with your phone lately, you know. What's up with that?" she directed that question over to Len, who shrugged uncomfortably.

"Maybe she got a new game or something," he said.

New game. Right. Miku smiled despite herself and typed out a reply.

_From: Hatsune Miku_   
_To: Megurine Luka  
got it! :) so cool lol whats up?_

"Earth to Miku," said Rin.

"What is it?" Miku said, eyes still fixed on her phone as she waited for a reply. Her mind spun. They could text each other. This opened up so many new possiblities...what more, Miku's phone could send pictures, and she was willing to bet Luka's could too. They could use this somehow, she just knew it-

"You're staring at your phone really intensely," Len said, a trifle nervously. "A-are you okay?"

Miku opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the phone vibrated with another text that Miku immediately opened.

_From: Megurine Luka  
To: Hatsune Miku  
I'm eating lunch. Are you free to talk now?_

Without a second word, Miku got up from her seat, staring at her phone. "I have to call someone now," she said.

Rin rolled her eyes, and Len looked at her quizzically. "During lunch break?"

"Yeah," Miku nodded. "It's important! Life and death important. It's _Luka_ important."

"What, did you find a cheat guide to woo her or something?" Rin asked.

Miku grinned, shrugged, and left the room, leaving the twins staring after her.

"What's up with her?" Rin said, finally.

Len shook her head. "I have no idea..."

xxx

"Hey, what's up?" Miku spoke into the phone as she sat on the toilet, fingers drumming on her thigh impatiently. She didn't actually need to go, but this was the most private place she knew of.

"Not much," said Luka. "So...I guess now we exchange tips?"

"Of course! Do you want to start?"

"I don't know what to start with..."

"Let me tell you about myself first then," said Miku. She put her elbows on her knees. "Ummm, my name is Hatsune Miku and I'm a second year at Crypton High..."

Luka laughed. "I knew that much."

"H-hey, I'm just getting started. This is hard, okay?" Miku pouted. "Anyways! My favorite food is definitely, absolutely leeks-"

"I'm pretty sure everyone knows that too."

"Do you want my relationship advice or not?" Miku asked, smiling a little. For some reason, she felt...relaxed, talking to this Luka over the phone. She was different, in a way - she was Luka, sure, but she wasn't as intimidating to talk to as the Luka Miku knew. Maybe it was because of the fact that it was over the phone, or that they were in such similar situations that Miku's normal awkwardness went away. "Anyways, as I was saying, leeks. You can really just talk to me about leeks, you know?"

"Sure, but I can't hold long conversations about leeks..."

"The fastest way to a girl's heart is through her stomach," Miku declared solemnly. "Even just making me something with leeks would be good."

There was a brief pause. Miku strained her ears, and heard a scratching sound. She paused as the meaning of this dawned in her head. "...Luka."

Luka made a noncommital sound over the phone.

"...are you...actually writing this down?"

"E-er..."

Miku couldn't help it; she laughed. "Wow, it's not like this is a test or anything!"

"Hey, I'm serious about this, you know..."

Miku recalled Luka's expressions in her mind, that air of mystery that constantly surrounded her. "Yeah...I'm serious too," she said. "Tell me about yourself this time. We can trade, one for one."

"Ah, okay," said Luka, and she paused, seeming to think it over. "Oh. I like the rain."

"...you like the rain?" Miku stared up at the ceiling, committing this to memory, thinking it over until something occurred to her. "O-oh! So does that mean, if I walked up to you and asked to share umbrellas, you'd say ye-"

"Not so fast. No matter how much I like the rain, there's no way I would share an umbrella with a total stranger."

"We're not strangers," said Miku.

"We are in your world, remember?" Luka said, and then she paused. "Wait...you said you talked to me today and I didn't recognize you...that could be bad."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it! If you're walking to school and suddenly this stranger pops up out of nowhere and starts talking to you about talking _with_ you over the phone last night..." Luka trailed off meaningfully.

Miku's eyes widened. "Oh no..."

"Exactly," said Luka.

"I asked Gumi for your phone number yesterday too! Luka's going to think I'm a freak!" Miku put a hand to her head. Was this over before it even begun too? "Luka, what would you do in this situation? How can I redeem myself?"

"W-well," said Luka, "you can maybe find me later and apologize? Say that you were having a strange dream-"

"I can't tell her I _dream_ about her! That's even creepier."

"Um...oh! I know!" Luka sounded triumphant. "Talk to Gumi. Gumi will help you."

"Gumi?" Miku couldn't think of a single way the green-haired girl could help her. "What? Why _Gumi?"_

"She's less protective than Meiko," said Luka. "And since I was shy when I was young, it's harder for me to open up to people. If you talk with Gumi a lot, I'm sure she'll see you're a good person, and she'll tell me that too. She tells me about a lot of people, you know."

Miku stared down at her hands. She remembered yesterday, when she tried to ask Gumi for Luka's phone number, and winced. "But that's...she's an upperclassman..."

"That doesn't matter," said Luka. "Gumi will help. She's a good person."

Miku was silent for a few seconds, before she sighed. "Yeah, but still..."

"Huh?" Luka sounded a little taken aback. Miku stared down at the bathroom tiles, alternating gray and darker gray. A boring pattern, really. "But it's just Gumi..."

"Right," said Miku. "It's just Gumi." She shook her head, as if to clear it. She had to be brave. For Luka. Right. And Luka, phone-Luka, was helping her too. She couldn't let her down. She had to help her with her own Miku as well. "Alright," Miku got up from the toilet. "Lunch is almost over now, so I have to go. I'll call you later."

"Ah...okay," said Luka, still sounding a little confused. "Remember to talk to Gumi!"

"Yeah," said Miku, and she flipped the phone shut.

xxx

The orange sunset cast dark pools of shadow on the street as Miku, Rin, and Len walked home, Miku quiet as Rin chattered on about school. Len kept casting anxious glances at Miku, but Miku didn't notice; she was too wrapped up in thoughts of how to talk to Gumi. After their last meeting, how could Miku talk to her? She really screwed things up for herself...Miku sighed and hung her head.

"What's wrong, Miku?" asked Len. "You've been acting strange all day."

Miku raised one shoulder in a half-hearted attempt at a shrug. "I'm just thinking," she said. "Do you two know much about Gumi?"

"G-Gumi!" Rin gasped, and then clenched her heart in mock drama. "N-no way...so this is what the flighty heart of a teenage girl is like...don't tell me, you're in love with Gumi n-"

"No, that's completely wrong," Miku interrupted. "I just want to talk to her. This morning, I talked to Luka and...now she thinks I'm crazy, probably."

Rin exchanged glances with Len, mouthing the word 'overdramatic', before turning back towards Miku. "People always think you're crazy, Miku. Seriously, what kind of teenage girl likes eating leeks that much?"

Miku scowled. "It's just a food preference! Leeks are healthy! Plus, you can spin them."

"Right, because that's totally what teenagers do in their spare time," said Rin.

"A-anyways," Len interjected in an attempt to steer the conversation back on track, "why talk to Gumi if it's a misunderstanding with Luka? Can't you just talk it out with Luka instead?"

"Ah, no, that's completely impossible, no way," Miku shook her head, flapping a hand as if by doing that she could wave the question away.

"You're going to have to talk to her eventually if you want to _date_ her," Len said, frowning. "Miku, it's not that hard."

"I know that, but..." Miku trailed off. How could she possibly explain? "It's complicated. This morning, I said something really strange to her, so she'll probably think I'm a total weirdo now."

Len shook his head. "You can explain all that, can't you?"

_Not really,_ Miku wanted to say, but instead she said, lamely: "Like I said, it's complicated...a-anyways, I just want to know if you two know anything about Gumi, that's all."

"Well...fine. She's in the newspaper club...I think," said Len, somewhat reluctantly, before turning towards Rin. "The newspaper club, right?"

"How would I know?" Rin crossed her arms. "Anyways, Miku, you're acting really weird. You've been on your phone all day. There's no way you could've just been calling your mom. Tell us! We're your friends."

"E-er..." Miku's mind raced. Would anything _bad_ happen if she told Rin and Len? Would they even believe her? If they did, then what would happen? Despite herself, Miku felt as though she should at least tell Luka - Phone Luka - about this first, before telling her friends. Even though they were in alternate universes (even now that idea sounded ridiculous, strange, dreamlike), would this affect Luka's world too? Miku had no idea. "I don't know if I should..."

"Huh? What do you mean, you don't know? We've been friends since we were kids, you know," Rin huffed out an irritated breath. "You can trust us." Then she paused, and her eyes grew wide. "No way...Miku, don't tell me, you're doing compensated dating?"

_"W-what?_ There's no way I'm doing that! Geez, what's with your mind?"

"Well, you're checking your phone all the time, you're being secretive...I know Luka's pretty well off, but you don't need to resort to that, Miku! Ahh, the thought of all those perverts out there..." Rin looked rather agitated, her fingers wriggling.

"Like I said, I'm not doing that! Seriously..." Miku sighed, and looked up. They had reached her house. Relief washed over her - no more of the Kagamine's questioning! The exit was so close, all she had to do was go in through her front door, and then peace and quiet...Miku turned back to face the Kagamines. "Oh, I'm back at my house! Hey, I have a lot of homework to do now, so-"

"I think she's trying to get rid of us," said Rin.

Len nodded, face grave. "Yeah, I think so too."

Sometimes Miku hated the twins' stubbornness. "No I do, remember we have a test on Friday? I have to study for that! English is so hard..."

Rin sighed, her white ribbon seeming to droop disappointedly with her. "Fine...but you're not off the hook yet," she jabbed a finger at Miku. "You're going to have to explain everything tomorrow! No running away. All the sudden Gumi stuff, and all the phone stuff."

Len nodded. "We're worried about you, Miku."

Miku swallowed and clutched her phone in her pocket. "Okay. I'll uh...let you know. See you tomorrow." That said, they said their goodbyes and left, and Miku entered her house. After a glum 'I'm home' (much to the surprise of her parents, who had seen her run exuberantly out the door this very morning), Miku trudged up to her room, footsteps heavy. What was she going to tell Rin and Len tomorrow? And how was she going to approach Gumi anyway? Join the newspaper club? That's a lot, just to make amends...but it was for Luka. Right. Luka - the perfect, elegant school idol.

Opening the door to her room, Miku walked over to her bed and sat heavily down on it, sighing, before taking out her phone and staring at it, screen at the contact book.

_Megurine Luka_

"Megurine Luka," Miku said, softly, before pressing the call button.


	3. Chapter 3

"So you see," Miku finished, "Rin and Len are getting suspicious..."

There was a brief pause over the line as Luka considered this, and then she spoke. "After only one day? Miku...I didn't know you were so bad at keeping secrets..."

Miku felt her cheeks flush at the words. "I-it's not that! It's just that they know me too well! Argh, those twins!" Miku was shaking her head, even though Luka couldn't see. "They know all of my weaknesses..."

"Hmm," Luka said. "Well, if they know everything...why don't you ask them to help us out with this? You can tell them. I don't mind."

"Wh-wha...really?"

"Yeah," Luka seemed to be warming up to the idea. "Why not?"

"Don't you think that bringing more cross-dimensional talking into this is dangerous? The universes might collapse! Also, they might think I'm crazy."

"The universe won't collapse," said Luka. "I think. Anyways, if they talk directly to me, they'll know it's for real."

"I don't know...they can be pretty skeptical..." Miku muttered. "A-anyways. I was wondering, what's your email address?"

"My...email?" Luka sounded briefly taken aback. "It's JBFflatline at gmail."

"JBF...flatline? What's that from?"

"Nothing important," said Luka, somewhat evasively. "What's yours?"

"Mine's mikumiku123 at yahoo."

"...mikumiku123?"

"I made it when I was ten," Miku felt the heat rise in her cheeks again. "It sounded catchy."

Luka laughed. "It just seems funny you're using that. Though, why do you ask all of a sudden? Wait, are our alter egos in the other universe using the same email?"

That made Miku pause. She wasn't eager to send an email to the cool school idol Luka right now. Especially after _that_ this morning. Luka's going to think Miku's even more of a creep than she already is! Groaning, Miku lowered her head. "I...I don't know..."

"Ugh...there's no way for me to send my Miku a message either. She doesn't even know me," Luka mumbled.

Silence reigned as both girls glumly sat there, Miku's mind quietly whirring until an idea hit her and she sat straight up. "I know! Luka, you're on student council, right?"

"H-huh? Uh, yeah-"

"Then, I know exactly what to do!" Miku said. "You know how sometimes the student council sends out random annoucements that no one ever reads?"

"Hey! A lot of work goes into those, you know. No one reads them? R-really?"

Miku continued, ignoring Luka's panicked reaction. "You can send a fake one to my email. I'll let you know if I get anything. You can just make it something random, like Happy Pi Day or something."

"Miku, it's not March or the fourteenth. And we don't send announcements like that."

"I don't read them, so if you use the student council email address, I'll probably just delete it on sight."

"How cruel...what if it was me writing those in your universe? You're deleting personal correspondence from your crush," Luka said. "You should be saving them in a special folder."

"I don't even know how to make special folders in my email," Miku said, grinning. "Anyways, you don't really write them. I think Kaito does, right?"

"...you got me, Kaito writes them."

"I can tell, there's always an ice cream background in those."

"So your Kaito likes ice cream too...it seems like our universes are pretty much the same, except for us."

"Hm, yeah," Miku frowned up at the ceiling of her room. "It's kind of weird, you know? Like, why are _we_ the only ones who are different? It's kind of like a...a..." she struggled, trying to bring the words to her mind. "A..."

"...statistical anomaly?"

"Right! One of those! You'd think more things would be different," said Miku, "otherwise it wouldn't really be an alternate universe. Well," Miku shrugged, "it's probably not a big deal. The less different, the better."

"The less different, the better..." Luka said, slowly. "I wonder, what else is different over there..."

"Anyways," said Miku. "The email. Send a student council email about something like, I don't know, a...a new fax machine! I'll let you know if I get it."

Luka made a humming noise and Miku could hear static over the phone, shuffling, the creak of a chair. "Mikumiku123 at yahoo, right?"

"Right."

There was silence for a few moments, and then..."Done."

"Ah, let's see if I get it!" Miku jumped off her bed and ran over to her desk, pulling out her chair and sitting down. She opened her laptop, tapping the space bar impatiently as she waited for it to wake from sleep mode. The screen flickered to life, and Miku opened her browser, navigated to her inbox...and nothing.

"...I didn't get anything."

"Huh? I sent it, and it's a valid email. Sometimes it takes a while. Wait a bit?"

Miku frowned. "Alright..." she refreshed her inbox, watched as the minutes ticked by on her clock, the second hand notching around the clock. After three minutes of long silence and waiting, Miku shook her head and sighed. "No dice. No email."

"If it's a valid email," said Luka, slowly, "that means the _email address_ is the same as the ones over here, probably...so why are only the phone numbers different?"

"It's really weird, isn't it..." Miku leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Man. I can't send you funny cat pictures anymore."

Luka, caught by surprise, laughed. "Ah, you don't need to. Gumi sends me enough random things already!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really," said Luka. "Anyways...what were we talking about?"

"Uh..."

"Oh right, Rin and Len," Luka said. "I don't see why you can't tell them."

"It's hard to explain," Miku didn't like this return back to the original topic. Telling Rin and Len made her feel awkward. It would be a hassle to explain, and they would want to be on the phone all the time, and with Rin's overenthusiasm, Miku could only see herself being dragged out to do more and more ridiculous things. Plus, she still had yet to talk with Gumi, and she really needed to do that soon so that she could finally talk with Luka - the Luka in her world.

Miku imagined, briefly, the scene. A rainy day. Miku holding an umbrella, Luka's fingers wrapped warm and tight around Miku's own, walking together down the road...

"...Miku? Miku?"

"E-eh?" Miku snapped out of it. "What?"

"You were spacing out..."

"A-ah," Miku felt a blush heat her face. "S-sorry. Er. What was I saying?"

"Rin and Len," said Luka, with exaggerated patience. "Why can't you tell them?"

"It's hard to explain." Miku didn't like this return back to the original to-

"You just said that. Let's not get into an infinite loop of this..."

"Well, it's just that this is crazy cross-dimensional stuff! It's not like they'll believe it just like that," Miku snapped her fingers. "Even if they talk to you, they'll probably think I hired an actor or something."

"There's no reason for you to hire an actor to impersonate me on the phone," Luka pointed out, effectively deflating Miku's argument as easily as a pin popping a balloon. "I don't see why they won't believe you."

"How about telling Gumi and Meiko about me, then?" asked Miku. "It's hard, right?"

A brief pause, then: "No, not really. I already told them anyways."

"W-what?" Miku swiveled around in her seat, kicking the ground. "Are you serious?"

"Of course," said Luka. "Just tell them. What can go wrong?"

Miku gave up. It was clear that Luka wasn't going to stop pestering her on the subject. Miku would just have to put up with the teasing. "Fine. But don't say I didn't tell you so. They don't believe everything, you know."

xxx

"We believe you," said Rin and Len after a brief moment of conference with each other.

Miku blinked, nonplussed. "E-eh? You don't need me to...to call her, or anything?"

Rin shook her head, crossing her arms. "This is a lie that's so ridiculous, it has to be true, because there's no way you're stupid enough to try to convince us of another world when you're lying."

Miku couldn't quite follow that, but she decided to accept it anyways. "So wait, are you honestly...honestly okay with me talking with a Luka from another dimension?"

"About that," said Len, his mouth slightly pulled down in a frown. "I...don't know if that's the best idea."

_"What?"_ cried Rin and Miku at the same time. They looked at each other, surprised.

"Wow. We actually agreed with each other," said Miku.

Rin nodded, and then turned towards her brother. "This is perfect. How could this possibly go wrong? Other Luka can help Miku with this Luka! It's perfect. Perfect! You know how hopeless Miku is!"

"I-I'm not hopeless!" Miku protested.

"That's true, she is a bit hopeless," said Len, nodding solemnly and ignoring Miku.

Miku could do nothing but look down in shame and despair.

"So? What could possibly go wrong?" said Rin.

Len hesitated. "I was just thinking, there's this...possibility, of...well, this is another universe, right? So it's not like you can ever see the other Luka..."

"I don't get it," said Rin. "Why would Miku need to see the other Luka when she has this Luka? It's the same person. There's no difference at all!" She shook her head. "You worry way too much, Len."

Unease swept Len's face. "Well, I was just saying-"

"Look, just let me handle this," Rin patted Len on the back condescendingly. "Man, you two are hopeless. We have a worrier and a pussy. Looks like it's up to me to save you all from your lameness. Miku, you didn't explain why you needed to talk to Gumi."

"Oh...it's because Phone Luka told me that if I talk to her, she could tell my Luka that-"

"Wow...already using words like 'my' in the relationship?" Rin started to snicker, and Miku felt herself blush again.

"H-hey, it's just to tell them apart in conversation!"

"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that. Anyways, back to Gumi. Basically, you want her as an 'in' to the relationship with Luka, right?" Rin nodded sagely, stroking her chin. "You should join the newspaper club."

"That's...that's a really extreme step..."

"You should do _something,_ anyways," said Rin. "You wouldn't even join the school band club with me and Len! And you're a really good singer!"

"The school band club doesn't do anything but eat cake and talk about random stuff," said Miku. "It's more of a light music club than anything else, and I mean 'light music' as in, 'no music'."

"Either way," Rin continued, "you should get into some extracurriculars. Good for the soul. Might cure you of your chronic pussiness."

"For the last time, I'm not a pussy, and would you please stop using that word?"

"Nope," said Rin. "Not unless you join a club. If you join the newspaper, you'd definitely be with Gumi a lot on assignments. For someone hopeless like you, that might be the only choice. Plus, it's what Phone Luka said too. Think about it! You might get to interview the school idol council president!"

Miku shivered. Interviewing Luka...despite her conversations with Phone Luka, talking with the actual Luka was still intimidating. Really intimidating. Still...if it was for her...

"I'll do it," said Miku, slowly.

"Alright!" Rin pumped a fist in the air. "It's decided! Right after school, join the newspaper club!"

"I still don't think this phone thing is a good idea," Len muttered under his breath, but it was too quiet for anyone to hear.

xxx

Miku stood outside the hallway, shivering. Rin had told her firmly to wait outside for Gumi to come out of class and ask to join the newspaper club. It was too late in the year to officially join a club, but their school was pretty loose about such things - Miku could join unofficially and then sign up for the club officially next year.

Not that, Miku thought, she wanted to actually join the newspaper club permanently. The world of journalism seemed so strange she could hardly imagine it. Tapping her foot on the hard floor, she waited. Then, the door slid open and Gumi, chattering cheerily with Meiko, stepped out. Miku struggled to master the sudden meekness that rose within her and stepped forward.

"E-excuse me," she stuttered. Gumi and Meiko stopped and looked.

"Ah, you're the girl who ran into me the other day and asked me for Luka's phone number!" Gumi said, a smile breaking out on her face. "What is it?"

"U-uh," Miku said.

Meiko stared at her for a bit before turning back towards Gumi. "Wait, so it's another Luka fan?"

_It?_ Miku thought to herself.

Gumi only laughed heartily. "Well, you know how popular she is!"

"I want to join the newspaper club!" Miku blurted out, all in a rush.

Nothing but silence as Gumi and Meiko stared at her. Gumi, in particular, looked thoughtful.

"You want to join? Really?"

"Really," said Miku.

"Do you want to be a reporter or do you want to do things like layout? Or editing? Or marketing?"

"Marketing?" Meiko looked at Gumi suspiciously. "Why does the school paper need to be marketed? It's the _only_ school paper! Is that why the budget for your little club has been running out so quickly?"

"Nah, those're for our food trips," said Gumi easily. "Marketing is important, anyways! It's not just for the newspaper. We also advertise other things."

"Oh, okay-wait, _food trips?"_

"E-excuse me-" Miku tried to insert herself back into the conversation.

"Oh, sorry!" Gumi snapped her attention back to Miku. "Meiko can get really ornery at times. She's the treasurer so she has this huge stick up her-"

"Don't make me sound bad in front of our underclassman."

"Sorry, Meiko," said Gumi, not sounding very sorry at all. "So? What is it you want to do? The newspaper club always needs new members!"

"Well, I didn't really think too much about it..." said Miku, slowly.

"Hmm," Gumi looked thoughtful. "Well, I'll take you over so you can check out what we do. If you can't find anything, well...there's always being a gofer."

"A gofer?"

"Yeah," said Gumi, flicking a casual goodbye wave to Meiko with one hand as she motioned for Miku to follow her with the other. "A gofer. Basically, doing stuff like fetching coffee, filing papers, and food runs. I've always wanted a gofer in the office!" Gumi's eyes lit up at the thought. "We spend a lot of late hours at school, and going out for food can be a pain sometimes. Hey, if you're a gofer, we wouldn't need to move! Efficiency goes up by two hundred percent!"

Fetching coffee, filing papers, and doing food runs didn't sound too taxing, Miku figured. How much coffee and food do they need? "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Wow, really? Most people wouldn't do that kind of thing. Are you really okay with it?" Gumi looked at Miku.

Miku didn't really have any interest in writing or editing - she did enough of that at normal school already - so she shrugged. "I'm fine."

Gumi exhaled. "Wow. That's intense. Nice seeing a devotee to goferism though," she grinned. "I like you already!" She slapped Miku on the back. "Plus, this way, you can creep on Luka's files. I bet that's what you really wanted, right? Don't lie~!"

" _W-what_?" Miku felt herself blush again. What was with everyone teasing her? First Rin...now Gumi? "Th-that's not why I joined! I... just wanted to get to know Luka. I don't want to read her files! That's...that's invasion of privacy!"

"In the newspaper club," said Gumi as the two of them approached the club room, "there's no such thing as privacy." She opened the door and Miku peered in.

The newspaper club was larger than she thought. Piles of paper were stacked haphazardly around, on chairs, desks, even on the floor. People typed busily on laptops, file cabinets were open and in disarray, there was a door on the side with the words 'DARKROOM' painted on it in large red letters, and there were two printer/scanner/fax machines that seemed to print out things endlessly. Miku stared. It was, she thought, a strangely large newspaper club for a high school, as well as a strangely busy one.

"We share space with the photography club and I ask the student council for money," said Gumi, gesturing at one of the printers and the darkroom. "Anyways, let me introduce you to everyone!"

The next few minutes were a whirl of activity as Gumi introduced Miku, if the word 'introduced' could be used for shoving Miku into other people, giving a quick name rundown, before whisking Miku away to greet others. The names Gakupo, Lily, Miki, Sonika ("my cousin from America," Gumi explained briefly), Neru ("you're joining the newspaper club, Miku?" "She's our new gofer!")...Miku could hardly remember it all. In the end, she was back at where she once stood, feeling rather woozy.

"And that's about it," said Gumi cheerily. "Now," she looked around the room and frowned. "Hmm, not much empty space for you here. Well, if you clean up those papers and file them over there, you can have that desk. Alright? Alright!" Not waiting for a reply, Gumi cheerily left, leaving Miku, suddenly, regretting her decision of joining the newspaper club and becoming a gofer. It was increasingly clear that it would be a lot more like...free labor than actually being a club member.

Sighing, Miku slumped over to the papers and began to clean them up. The desk was next to Sonika's, and she gave Miku a sympathetic glance.

"How'd you get stuck with being a gofer?" she asked.

Miku lowered her head and sighed. "It's a long story..."

"My cousin can be kind of insensitive at times," said Sonika, frowning. "I'm sorry. I need to talk to that girl..." She rubbed her head and glanced over at Gumi. "Anyways. If you like, after you clean up those papers, you can help me out with editing."

"Thanks," said Miku, smiling at Sonika. She seemed a lot calmer than Gumi, despite them being cousins.

"So why did you join?"

"E-er..." Miku faltered, before she glanced away at the ground. "I...I wanted to get to know Luka a little more."

"...so you joined the newspaper club? Huh. Did you want to interview her or something?"

"Not exactly. Gumi and Luka are really good friends, so I thought..." Miku trailed off. What did she think? This was all Rin's idea. "Argh."

Sonika gave her a quizzical look. "I...see. Well," she patted Miku sympathetically on the back, "I hope you enjoy your time here!"

"Th-thanks..."

xxx

"You're done with student council early, President Luka!" Gumi mock-saluted Luka as she approached her in the hall. "What's up?"

Luka tapped a piece of paper she was holding with her other hand. "Meiko told me that you've been wasting budget again."

"Wasting budget? Me? No way. The newspaper club manages its finances extra carefully!"

Luka's mouth tugged up in a faint smile. "Really?"

"Really. By the way, we have a new member now," said Gumi. "Hatsune Miku."

"Hatsune Miku?" Luka repeated.

"Hatsune Miku."

"That girl..." Luka stared up at the ceiling. "Sounds...familiar."

"She's been asking about you for the past few days," Gumi chuckled. "I think she's another fan of yours."

Luka frowned. "I don't get it. Seriously...I'm just a normal person."

"You like rain and tuna. That's kind of weird, you know. Like, rainy tuna?"

"I don't like rainy tuna, but I like rain and tuna."

"Same thing," said Gumi dismissively. "Anyways, this girl is pretty cute. She has this...ah, how do I put it? It's really easy to take advantage of her."

Luka stared at Gumi. "What?" Words like that sounded strangely suspect.

"Yeah! You know, she volunteered for being the gofer. I was just kidding when I said that, but she went right for it!" Gumi shook her head. "Really easy to please. I'm sure she'll probably go into editing with Sonika though, her desk is like, right next to hers and she wouldn't put up with me calling for coffee all the time."

"You don't even _like_ coffee."

"It's kind of like dirty water," said Gumi. "But cafe au lait is good. Anyways, that's not the point. The point is, when you work in the newspaper club, you always need coffee. It's an image thing. Image, you know? You should visit us sometime though. The presence of President Luka would probably make everyone work ten times harder. Wow, efficiency up four hundred percent with Miku and Luka!"

Luka smiled. "I don't know about that. That's a huge efficiency increase."

"I am confident in the power of having a new gofer and the school idol in the same room," said Gumi serenely. "Anyways, you should stop by. I'll introduce you to our new gofer, at least. She's a fan. You can sign her uniform or something."

Luka rolled her eyes. "Sometime," she said.

Gumi smiled at her. "Sometime, right?"


	4. Chapter 4

The life of a gofer, Miku learned, was a hard one. Gumi was a relentless slave driver, calling for so much coffee it was a wonder she didn't explode in a burst of overexcitation from caffeine intake. The others were, thankfully, more considerate, though Neru liked sending Miku out to buy food for her a bit too often - and whenever Neru did that, Gumi's head would shoot up from her desk, hawklike, and she too would demand something - usually some overly specific coffee that Miku had trouble remembering. When not getting coffee and doing food runs, Miku was busy arranging the files, clearing the room of paper, and refilling paper and toner for the printer. Basically...

"I'm like their slave," Miku had her head facedown on her desk in her room, Rin and Len sitting on her bed. "It's hopeless."

Rin frowned. "What made you say you wanted to become the _gofer?_ That's just asking for trouble, you know. Do you even know what the word means?"

"No, not really..."

"It's the bottom of the rung!" Rin cried. "The lowest of the low! The gofer is the fall guy, the person who does the worst, most menial tasks! You should've gone into editing or layout. Layout, actually. How hard would laying out a newspaper be? But now you're a gofer...and you're not even getting paid for it..."

"They share their food with me sometimes," said Miku, meekly.

Rin and Len exchanged glances, and Rin sighed. "Hopeless. You're _totally_ hopeless."

"I haven't even seen Luka yet," Miku said. It's been a week since she joined the newspaper club as their new gofer, and really, her situation hadn't changed at all, though sometimes Gumi would loudly declare that Miku made the best coffee she ever had.

It wasn't that hard, really. All Miku did was dump a ton of milk into it, to the point where the milk flavor overpowered the coffee.

But still. Despite her apparent coffee-making skills, Miku had gotten absolutely nowhere on her quest to win over Luka.

"You should be more patient," Phone Luka had said when they last talked. Miku had been sitting at her desk, glumly staring at her blank notebook. "Things like this take time."

"Time...yeah," Miku mumbled. "How are things going with you?"

"I've been cooking with leeks a lot," said Luka.

At the sound of leeks, Miku brightened up. "Wow! Leeks? What've you made?"

"Poached tuna with leeks, pan-seared tuna served over braised leeks..."

"What's with all the tuna?"

"Uh, it's my favorite food, so I usually cook with it a lot. I also made a lot of soups and stews with it. Oh, and stir-fry."

"Wow," Miku said, voice awed. "Are you a good cook, Luka? It really sounds like it. I wish I could have tried some of those. You know what you should try to make? A leek cake!"

"Eh...you mean, something sweet made with leeks?"

"Yeah!"

"That...I'm not sure that's possible."

"Anything is possible with the magic of leeks," said Miku, solemnly.

Luka laughed. "I see. I don't know if I can bake a leek cake, though."

"How about chocolate cake? If you give me chocolate cake at school with leeks...I'd love you forever," Miku was practically drooling at the thought.

"Still," said Luka, "I'm not sure if it's possible to randomly come up to you and give you food. Won't you think it's strange?"

Such hypotheticals had become common questions in their relationship now, and Miku closed her eyes and tried to imagine it. Walking down the school, not knowing Luka, and seeing her suddenly come out of the hallway and give her food...

...Luka was right. It would seem a bit strange. Miku frowned.

"That Miku in the other world has no idea what she'll be missing out on if she doesn't take your food," Miku grumbled. "But...you're right. It'd be a bit weird, I guess."

"Right?" Luka said. "I still don't know how to approach her."

Miku had always thought of herself as a very approachable person, so this surprised her. "I'm not approachable?"

"Well, you're always with Rin and Len, and you aren't really in any clubs over here. I know you're in the newspaper club over there, but here...you just aren't in any. And since you're always with Rin and Len, during breaks and lunch, it's just hard..." Luka sounded defeated. "You can join a club to get the other me's attention, because I'm in student council, but I can't do anything like that, since you're not in any clubs..."

Thinking about it, Luka's words made sense. Miku had never really thought about it that way before. She could see, in her mind's eye, herself from Luka's vision - constantly talking with Rin and Len, sitting together with them, and going back home with them on the days they didn't have to go to the school's band club. Constantly surrounding herself with her friends had the eerie effect of simulataneously cutting herself off from other people.

Miku frowned. "Oh..."

"Right? I just don't know," Luka sighed.

The two of them were quiet for a while, sober from Luka's predicament. Miku's heart ached, a little. All this time, she had been talking about her own problems. She hadn't been thinking about Luka's situation at all - she hadn't helped Luka as much as Luka had helped her. Getting up from her chair, Miku walked over to the window and stared outside, thinking. She had to help Luka too. Right. It wasn't all about herself. On the other end, in Luka's universe...she had her own story too.

Luka's world. Miku wondered about it, sometimes, and the Miku there. Sometimes during class she would sit - sit and think about the world parallel to her own.

"Are the stars over there the same as the stars over here?" Miku asked suddenly into the phone as she looked outside. The velvety blanket of night spread far before her, pinpoints of light looking static to Miku's slow eyes.

Luka made a humming noise over the phone, and Miku could imagine her getting up from her seat and walking over to the window. After a short pause, she spoke. "I don't know. Do you know any astronomy, Miku?"

Miku shook her head before realizing that Luka could not see her - of course she couldn't, she lived somewhere else - and said "No".

Luka laughed softly. "I didn't think so. I used to read a lot of astronomy books when I was younger. But you forget a lot of things later on..."

Miku waited for Luka to go on, but Luka said nothing. "Forget?"

"Yeah, you know. There are some things you're interested in when you're younger, but real life just wipes it all away. When I was younger, I used to stargaze all the time. I thought they were my friends, you know? The stars..."

Miku listened. Luka's voice was soft, soothing even, and Miku wanted to do nothing more than close her eyes and go to sleep, carried by the pale soft nimbus of Luka's voice.

"I didn't have many friends other than Meiko when I was a kid," said Luka. "I guess I just projected on to them. But I still like looking at them. That didn't completely go away."

"You don't remember anything about the stars?" Miku asked.

Luka was silent for a few moments before she spoke. "Well...up there, in my world, I can see Virgo. Parts of it are also in one of the eastern mansions of the Azure Dragon...a Chinese constellation."

"Huh," Miku squinted up at the sky. To her, the stars were only stars. To someone who didn't know anything about constellations, she saw nothing that even vaguely resembled mansions, dragons, or Virgo, though Miku's conception of Virgo existed only in horoscopes. "I can't tell."

Luka laughed. "They can be a little hard to spot. It's too bad I'm not there. I can show you the stars then."

The stars, Miku thought. Would the Luka here show her stars too? "I'd like that."

"I'm a little rusty now but I'm sure I can point out major constellations," Luka said. "Anyways, were there any things you liked when you were younger?"

"I had a pet rock," said Miku, thinking. This was her chance to pass on something to the other Luka - some point of connection, _something._ And then she realized it. "I like to sing."

"You sing?"

Feeling suddenly shy, Miku nodded. "Y-yeah. I used to sing a lot. I don't have as much time for it anymore, but I really love it. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a singer when I grew up. It's probably kind of ridiculous now though, because you have to be really talented to even make it, and I'm-"

"Don't doubt yourself, Miku," Luka said. "Could you sing something for me?"

Miku hesitated. "It's been a while...um, it probably won't sound very good over the phone, either."

The last reminded them both of their unique situation, and they both fell silent. Miku closed her eyes and took a breath. There was no other way for this Luka to hear her voice. Still, Miku felt scared, shy. She hadn't sung in front of a live audience since she was...what...twelve? Rin and Len are in the school band now, had encouraged Miku to join too, but...why didn't she? Because she was scared? Was that it? But why? People had always liked Miku's singing...

Sometimes Miku hated how easily cowed she could be, how easily intimidated, like with Gumi when she asked her for Luka's phone number. She hated how Rin called her a pussy, but she knew, somewhere deep down inside, that Rin was right. Miku wasn't even brave enough to sing for this Luka, after all.

"If you don't want to, it's fine," said Luka. She paused, and then spoke again. "You know, I sing too sometimes."

"Really?" Miku couldn't quite imagine the cool school idol singing, at least not the way Miku sang, and she wasn't in the school choir or band either.

"Yeah," said Luka. "That's where my email address came from, actually. JBFflatline. I wrote a song once, called Just Be Friends, so JBF. We should sing together sometime."

Miku, surprised by the offer, laughed. "But we can't hear each other if we do that!"

"Can't we send each other recordings?" asked Luka. "Over the phone?"

"Will that work? Remember, we can't send emails to each other because your address is the same as this Luka's?"

"It was a thought," said Luka. "Something to do sometime...are you sure you don't want to sing anything for me now?"

Miku hesitated. "I...well..."

"Please?"

Miku gave in. She couldn't really resist Luka for long - any Luka, it seemed. "Okay...uh, it might be bad, just warning you. Might want to cover your ears or something," she laughed.

"Don't self-deprecate like that," Luka said. "You should be more confident in yourself."

Miku blinked. "Huh? Uh...but..."

"Just sing," said Luka, gently. "I'm sure it'll sound great."

Miku took a hesitating breath before slipping into singing. It was an old song she had written when she was younger - _Melt_ \- and the words were slow to come at first before the memories flooded back into her head. She lost herself in the music, the wave of nostalgia hitting her hard. Why did she stop singing so much, anyways? This was...singing felt good. It was what she wanted to do, but it was so hard to make it, right? Still, Miku sang.

When she finished, there was silence on the line for a little and she waited, heart in her mouth, for Luka's reply. Trembling on the edge of some precipice-

"That was...wonderful," Luka said over the phone, voice faintly awed, and a smile so wide broke on Miku's face she didn't know how else to express it other than laugh shakily, relieved and surprised by the onrush of heady happiness.

"Really?" Miku asked, after her relieved laughter had died down a little.

"Really," said Luka. "Thank you."

"O-oh...you don't need to thank me," Miku scratched the back of her head. "It's uh, just a song. Just something..."

"No, thank you," said Luka, and Miku could almost swear she could hear a smile in her voice. "It sounded really good. You should join the school band."

Miku grinned at that. "Rin and Len are in the school band. They don't do anything but eat cake and talk about random stuff."

"Huh? Really?"

"Well," Miku amended, "that's what they do most of the time, at least. Whenever I visit, they never even practice. Still, when they played for the cultural festival last year, they sounded really good."

"I went to that," said Luka. "They were really good."

"Yeah. Anyways..." Miku thought a little, before her smile grew wider. She had an idea - something to help Luka too, as much as Luka had helped her. "I know what you can do for your Miku. You said you like to sing too, right?"

"Right."

"I haven't really sung in a while, so...maybe...I don't know, one day I'm walking over to school, and then I hear you singing!" Miku said. "It'll have to be somewhere quiet, like in a garden or something, that courtyard area. Like, somewhere pretty. Then I hear your singing."

Luka laughed. "What? What're the chances of you happening upon me singing in the courtyard? Do I have to go sing there every day?"

"Well, maybe not _every_ day..." Miku frowned in thought. "Still, we both sing! That's something we have in common. You can definitely use that, you know."

"Yeah..." Luka murmured. "Maybe I can..."

xxx

It was another eventful day at the newspaper club. Miku, panting slightly from her food run, handed Neru her convenience store bento (hamburger steak, as requested) and gave Gumi her coffee - or rather, coffee-infused milk now due to all the milk Miku put in it. Gumi took a long gulp of it and sighed happily as she put the cup down on her desk.

"Tastes great, Miku," she said, grinning up at her. "You're definitely the best gofer we ever had!"

Standing next to her, Sonika sighed as she paged through the printouts. "You mean, she's the _only_ gofer we ever had..."

"Same thing, Sonika. Besides, 'best gofer' rather than 'only gofer' sounds better. You should know this. You're an editor! Words have big impact, you know, _big impact!"_

"Er...can I go back to my desk now?" Miku asked, glancing at Sonika and then at Gumi. Sometimes Gumi would make some outrageous request, like "count the number of blue flowers in Hiyama's classroom." Miku was only waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As expected, Gumi shook her head. "Nope! I have something special for you, Miku." She said this with a wide, catlike grin that made a shiver go down Miku's spine. "Sonika, you can go proofread Neru's article or something."

"Wow, what a great dismissal, Gumi. You're the best," said Sonika, dryly.

"I know I'm the best, but thanks Sonika, I didn't know you had it in you to give a compliment!"

"Good luck," Sonika mouthed towards Miku, shaking her head as she walked back to her desk, and Miku gave a shaky grin in response before turning towards Gumi. Gumi smiled and leaned back in her seat.

"Miku," said Gumi, "you're a real good gofer. The best we ever had."

Miku bit back the urge to say "You mean only, right?" and nodded.

"So," Gumi continued, "I decided to give you a little something-something. Something special." Gumi snapped her fingers as if to emphasize this. "As editor in chief of Crypton High's student newspaper, I got close ties to the student council." She leaned forward. "We're thinking of writing something on them - the student council, I mean. Since you're such a good gofer, I figured that I'd give you the chance to interview Megurine Luka."

For a moment, that sentence didn't fully phase into Miku's head. She only nodded robotically until it hit her fully.

Her? Interview Megurine Luka? What? Miku gaped at Gumi. Was she serious? How could Miku interview _Megurine Luka,_ the school idol? What could she ask her?

"M-me? But...I'm just the g-gofer," Miku stuttered. "I don't know how to write! Or interview!"

"Nah, Sonika can whip you into shape for writing," Gumi said dismissively, waving a hand. "She's a psycho with that red pen, lemme tell you."

"B-but...are you sure?"

"I'm always sure! Never doubt my reporterly instincts, Miku."

"But..."

"No buts! It's decided," Gumi clapped her hands together. "Get a notebook. If you want, we have mics in the back for the interview, if you want to record it. Or you can just use your phone. The interview is in classroom 1-Q and starts in fifteen minutes, so you better get cracking."

"F-fifteen minutes?" Miku gaped. "Wh-when did you decide this?"

"Hm...well, I just decided it today, and I asked Luka if she had time to be interviewed after school."

"You just decided it _today?"_

"The life of media is fast-paced and exciting, Miku," said Gumi. "Have to get with the program. Sink or swim."

"I don't even have any questions ready, i-isn't there some sort of procedure for this?"

"Like I said," said Gumi, grinning, "you'll do fine. Don't even worry about it. If you can make coffee like this, interviewing President Luka would be a piece of cake."

_I'm dead,_ Miku thought to herself as she stared at Gumi, frozen in place. _So dead._

xxx

Miku walked down the hallway slowly, heart beating fast. She was going to interview Luka. _Miku_ was about to talk to _Luka._ She swallowed, hard. This was serious stuff. Miku had to make a good impression. She had her phone set to record already, and she even had a small notebook to take notes on. She ran over potential questions to ask, over and over, in her head. She had texted the other Luka for help too, but there was no response yet.

"I'm dead, so dead," Miku whispered to herself, shivering. She felt totally unprepared - completely unprepared. Her feet hesitated outside of classroom 1-Q, indecisive. Five minutes before she was schedule for the interview.

At that moment, her phone buzzed and Miku hurriedly grabbed it, flipped it open. It was a text from Luka, and Miku felt a wave of relief wash over her. Great. With Luka's help, she could do it.

_Wow! Congrats, Miku! For questions I think you should ask about my hobbies. Gumi told me that the 'human element' is the most important. Also ask about other student council members and general EC things._

Miku nodded and committed this information to memory before her fingers fumbled out a quick reply on the phone's keyboard.

_gr8 thx ur the best! :DD lol wish me luck kk xD_

That said (or rather, typed), Miku took a deep breath and entered the room, sliding open the door. It was an ordinary classroom, the windows looking out onto the green courtyard. Afternoon sunlight illuminated the room, giving everything a soft golden glow. The desks' colors all seemed warm, the brownness of the wood infused with sunlight. Sitting at one desk in the center was Megurine Luka.

Miku's breath caught. Luka looked absolutely beautiful. She had one hand placed on her cheek, looking outside, her hair long and so soft-looking Miku wanted to touch it. Her skin was pale and smooth, her eyes thoughtful, her uniform perfectly pressed and neat. She really was the school idol. Miku felt even more out of her league than she did already, and swallowed hard.

"U-uh, hey..." said Miku.

Luka turned her head to look at her and Miku found herself utterly transfixed by her light blue eyes. "Hello," said Luka, smiling, before her eyes widened in recognition. "Ah, you're that girl who-"

_Crap. She remembers,_ Miku thought, and at the same time, Miku said, "I-I'm sorry. That was...I uh, I was _really_ confused. I think my friend prank-called me," she finished lamely.

Luka raised one delicate eyebrow before nodding. The smile returned, warm and friendly. "I see. Well...have a seat." She gestured at a desk arranged so that it faced her own.

_Isn't the interviewer supposed to show up before the interviewee?_ Miku thought despite herself as she cautiously made her way over to the desk, sitting down. She tried to keep her face straight, tried not to give away the loud thumping in her chest, the speed of her heartbeat. "I...um, this is my first interview, so..."

"Don't worry about it," Luka said, kindly. "Really, there's no need to be so nervous."

Miku smiled shakily and pulled out her phone. The other Luka had sent her another text, and Miku opened it.

_Good luck!_

Good luck. Miku definitely needed a lot of luck right now. What happens in this one interview could make or break her chance with Luka. Miku needed to be convincing as an interviewer...write something good about Luka...and also give off the impression of being someone Luka would want to know more about. Definitely hard stuff.

Miku took a deep breath. "Do you mind being recorded?"

"I don't mind," said Luka.

Miku nodded and switched the recording function on. It was official now. The interview has begun. Miku ran her prepared questions over in her head, went over Phone Luka's advice in her head, and opened her mouth to ask the first question.


	5. Chapter 5

"So...tell me about the duties of student council," said Miku. As good a place to start as any, she figured.

"We set up school events, bring proposals from students to teaching staff, fund clubs, and sometimes settle disputes between clubs as well," said Luka, the words sounding rehearsed. It was probably a question she had answered many times before. "Basically, we try to act as representatives of the students of Crypton High. We listen to everyone's suggestions and try to bring them to the attention of the high school's staff."

Miku smiled stupidly, nodding along with Luka's words. Never before had the words 'representatives', 'suggestions', and 'disputes' sounded so beautiful. It took her a little bit before she realized that Luka had stopped talking, and a flaming blush erupted on Miku's cheeks.

"O-oh! Wow! I, uh, I didn't know that the student council did so much." Remembering the other Luka's advice, Miku decided to segue into another question. "Um...tell me about the other student council members."

Luka looked up at the ceiling as she thought. "Hmm. Well, Meiko is our treasurer. She's..." a faint smile touched Luka's lips, "she's my childhood friend. We're really close."

Despite herself, Miku felt a twinge of jealousy in her heart at those words combined with that smile and tone, something she did her best to push down. "Childhood friend?"

"Yes," said Luka. "She has a good head with money, though she's a little prickly at times. She's a good person, though. Kaito is the vice president. He's a really nice guy, writes the emails you all get in your inboxes. Gakupo is our club liaison. He manages our relationships with the clubs in the school, so he and Meiko work together on budgeting things for clubs a lot. Oh, he's in the newspaper club too, so you should know him."

"I do," said Miku, a trifle nervously. "He's cool." _Wow, way to sound suave, Miku..._

Luka nodded. "He's a friendly guy. That's why he's our club liaison. He doesn't look like it, but he can be kind of a goofball, so he gets along with Gumi."

"You and Gumi seem close," said Miku.

"Yeah. We met in middle school. She was really energetic, even back then."

"She's definitely energetic...must be because of all the coffee she drinks."

"Keep this off the record," said Luka, smiling, "but Gumi actually doesn't really like coffee."

"She doesn't? But she...she always asks me to-"

"She thinks it tastes like dirty water. That's why she always takes it with a ton of milk," said Luka. "That way, the milk flavor masks the coffee flavor."

"Oh..." That did make sense, in a weird, Gumi way. "But then, why not just take milk?"

Luka shrugged. "Well, I guess she just thinks it's good for her image as editor in chief. I guess she cares about this sort of thing because she works in media..." Luka frowned thoughtfully before shaking her head and moving on. "Anyways, our secretary is Yukari. She's pretty young, a first year, but she works hard. Really earnest."

Miku had seen Yukari around in the halls once or twice, but she didn't know too much about her. "She looks nice."

Luka nodded. "She's a good person."

A silence stretched on after that as Miku tried to think of what to ask next about the student council - a difficult feat, given her lack of interest in it (other than Luka, of course) and her lack of knowledge of anything that related to it, other than its members. Luka was still sitting there, calm as a statue.

"Er...okay...I guess that's it for student council then," Miku said, feeling her mouth pull up involuntarily in a bashful grin. "Um...moving on, tell me about your hobbies! What do you like to do in your spare time?" Within herself, Miku cursed quietly. Her voice sounded overenthusiastic in the quiet room - it was obvious that this question was one that Miku was more interested in than all the others, that all the talk of student council had been perfunctory.

For a brief moment, almost too quick to catch, a flash of...amusement? flickered over Luka's face before she returned to her normal expression. Miku blinked, a little confused, but before she could think about it too much, Luka was talking.

"I like to cook," said Luka. "When I was younger, I liked to stargaze."

"Ah, you like stargazing?" Miku blurted out, remembering the conversation she had with the other Luka about it, and Luka glanced at her.

"You like stargazing too?" asked Luka.

This was it. Do or die. Miku didn't know anything about stargazing, other than the fact that apparently the other Luka could see Virgo in the sky the other day, but that was neither here nor there, and Miku should be honest, should say no, should say-

"I _love_ stargazing!" Miku said, her mouth moving faster than her brain, and immediately after the words came out, she regretted them.

Luka raised her eyebrows. "Really?" Pause. "That's interesting. Well, it looks like we have something in common, then."

Whatever feeling Miku might have felt over the lie was obliterated by the sight of Luka's smile, kind and warm and dazzling. Miku smiled back, somewhat stupidly.

"What's your favorite constellation?" asked Luka, probing, and Miku snapped back to attention. What constellations were there? The Big Dipper? She can't say _that,_ that's the most obvious one out there, and..and...

"Uh...Virgo! The one where some of the parts are in one of the eastern mansions of the Azure Dragon," said Miku, dragging the memory of her conversation with the other Luka up from the back of her head.

Luka blinked and sat back in her chair. "You're familiar with the Chinese constellations?"

Crap. Suddenly, Miku wished that the other Luka had given her a little more information about this. "Well, just a little bit..."

"I can't tell if you're being honest or modest," said Luka, smiling.

Miku only laughed, and her laughter sounded weak and unconvincing even to her own ears. "Ahah...er, let's move on..." Miku cleared her throat, eager to get away from the subject of stargazing. With the introduction of Chinese constellations, Miku was going dangerously out of her element. Keeping the other Luka's advice in mind, Miku moved on to the next topic mentioned. "Um, did you join any clubs other than the student council?"

Luka shook her head. "Unfortunately not. I don't have a lot of time these days. When I was a first year, though," she said, somewhat thoughtfully, "I was in the book club."

"The book club?"

"Yeah," said Luka. "It's not around anymore due to its lack of members, but it was a fun little club all the same. That's where I met Kaito, come to think..."

"It sounds like the student council is a pretty close group..."

"We spend a lot of time together," said Luka, easily.

Miku couldn't help but to notice that, contrary to the other Luka, this Luka had not brought up her shyness in her childhood and the fact that she likes to sing, and Miku frowned a little in thought. Why? They're normal things. Nothing strange...right?

Well, maybe Luka just didn't want them to be brought up in an interview. Miku mentally shrugged the thought aside. She opened her mouth to ask more, but Luka was checking her watch before looking back at Miku with a somewhat regretful expression.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I have to talk with Meiko about the funding for the newspaper club soon. We're going to have to cut this short."

"O-Oh!" Miku stammered, grabbing her phone and stopping the recording. "It's fine! It's perfectly okay! I had a lot of fun talking with you."

"Thank you," said Luka. "It was nice meeting you, Hatsune Miku." Her words were warm, her expression matching perfectly with it, but for some reason, the _feeling_ Miku got from it was completely different from the aura of the other Luka's voice, and Miku couldn't quite put her finger on how. The way they talked was roughly the same, maybe this Luka a little more formal because it was an interview, but there was _something_ different that Miku didn't really understand...

But she shouldn't think about such things now. Luka was talking to her now. Right - Miku had to be completely focused on Luka. Miku had made progress, it was good - Luka knew her now, and most importantly, she didn't think that Miku was a stalker freak.

"You too," said Miku, smiling back. Luka got up from her seat, pushing her chair in, and after smoothing out her uniform, began to walk out of the room before she paused and turned back to face Miku.

"What's your email address?" she asked, almost as an afterthought.

For a moment, Miku forgot how to breathe.

Then: "I-it's mikumiku123...a-at yahoo."

Luka nodded. "That's easy to remember. I'll email you then."

Miku nodded enthusiastically, her heart practically bursting with happiness. She did it, she had made a good impression, she was drawing so close to her goal. In her head, entrancing visions of going out on dates with Luka, riding on ferris wheels, sharing ice cream, danced. She almost didn't catch the next words Luka said.

"We can go stargazing," Luka said. "I haven't gone in a while, so I'm rusty. You probably have an up to date star chart if you expressed so much interest in it right now."

Miku's mind stopped. The visions of amusement park dates and ice cream faded from her head, leaving only a cold numbness and the word _Virgo_ swirling round and round in her head. Stargazing? But Miku didn't know anything about the stars...and what's a star chart, anyways?

"A...st-star chart?" Miku croaked.

"Star chart. Well, I really need to go now, so I'll email you later. Bye!" With that, Luka flicked a hand in a good bye, a movement that somehow managed to seem incredibly elegant, and left, leaving Miku standing there, hand half-raised.

_I'm so dead._

xxx

Miku called the other Luka the moment she got home, breaths fast as she kicked off her shoes, jamming the cellphone to her ear. It rang three times before Luka picked up.

"How'd it go-" Luka began, but her words were drowned by Miku's panicked shout.

"Tell me everything you know about stargazing!"

"What?"

"Luka asked me to go stargazing with her," Miku explained as she went to her room. "But I don't know a thing about it!...other than Virgo!"

"Wait, wait, hold on a moment," said Luka. "Why are you so panicked? Isn't this a good opportunity?"

"She thinks I know more about stargazing than I actually do..." Miku mumbled. "She even asked me to bring a star chart...like I know what that is."

"Well," said Luka, "it's what it is. A star chart. A chart of stars. Nothing complicated."

"I googled it though, and it looked so...so confusing! What is an 'azimuth', anyways?"

There was a pause, then Luka spoke, cautiously. "It's a little hard to explain without a diagram. Have you studied physics? Do you know vectors?"

"No!"

"Er, well, nevermind then. I doubt she'll ask you about azimuths. If you're really concerned, you can go google it. How did you get in this situation, anyways?"

"Well, when she asked me if I liked to stargaze, I told her that I loved it. And I said it really, really loudly too, and I mentioned Chinese constellations, so she'll definitely think that I'm some kind of really intense stargazing freak," Miku said.

"I think you're making it more complicated than it actually is," said Luka. "What you should do is tell her that you actually don't know that much about stars and constellations. Like, you're just a hobbyist who likes looking at the night sky. Just make it seem like she misunderstood you!"

Miku gasped. Such a simple solution did not even occur to her. "I can just...tell her that I don't know?"

"Of course," said Luka. "I wouldn't be angry. I'll be a little embarrassed myself for misunderstanding everything."

"Wow," said Miku, awed. "You know Luka so well!"

"Well, that's because I'm Luka."

"You're another Luka," said Miku. "You're different. Oh...this Luka seems a little different from you, actually. I can't really put my finger on it, but...it's a little different. She didn't bring up singing or anything at all."

"Well, from the sounds of it, you two got sidetracked into stargazing, so that topic probably wouldn't come up," said Luka. "Anyways, really?"

"Yeah. Now that I think about it," said Miku, frowning slightly, "if you're student council president, how come I don't know you?"

"Well, I think you know me," said Luka, "but you don't _know_ me. You know, it's a little like how you _know of_ Yukari and Kaito and everyone, but you don't actually personally know them."

"...oh." That made a lot of sense. Luka was really smart, Miku felt. "But still! Uh, have you talked to Miku over there yet? Oh! Did you try the singing thing?"

"Yes, but she hadn't walked by the courtyard today." Luka's voice was a little flat. "Most embarrassing lunch of my life."

"Don't worry! I'm sure I'll find you someday!"

"Uh, right. I'll think of something," said Luka, clearly deciding to abandon the courtyard strategy. "Actually, I have to go for a bit - I need to help Meiko with calculus."

"Calculus?"

"Calculus."

There was a pause.

"Are you and Meiko, um, really close?" Miku ventured, remembering the interview earlier, the gentle smile on Luka's lips when she said the name.

"Huh? Uh, we've been friends for a long time, so yes, you could say we're pretty close."

Miku frowned. "Hmm."

There was another pause.

Luka broke the silence. "Yeah...why do you ask all of a sudden?"

"Oh!" Miku snapped out of...whatever weird mood she was in. "No reason! I was just curious, that's all." She laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "I just wanted to know."

"Alright," Luka said, seeming to accept the explanation. "I really do have to go now though, so talk to you later! Bye!"

"Bye," said Miku, and Luka hung up. Miku put the phone away in her pocket and walked over to her computer, waking it up from sleep mode and checking her email. There it was, the email Luka - the Luka from here - said she would send her. The email address was...Miku frowned...JBFflatline. So the emails really were the same...it was just the phone numbers that were different. Interesting. Miku shook her head and then opened the email.

_Hello,_

_This is Luka. Will you be free Friday night to go stargazing? We can just meet up after you're done with newspaper club that day._

_Sincerely,_

_Megurine Luka_

Despite its short length and businesslike tone, Miku couldn't help but to read it over one, two, three times. Here it was - her first email from Luka. Miku's mouth felt dry and she swallowed. This Friday...so soon. What to do...what to wear...what to say? Phone Luka said not to worry about it, but Miku couldn't help it. Images of Luka getting mad at her for not knowing anything about stargazing floated through Miku's head. If that happened, that would be bad. Ugh. Even though Phone Luka told her not to worry about it...maybe it was better to try to brush up on a little astronomy too. That way, she at least wouldn't look completely stupid. Unless she somehow messed up studying and mixed up some constellations and-

Miku shook her head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. She can't let that get her down. Miku had to do her best, and help Phone Luka out too. Phone Luka, who was helping Meiko out with calculus homework right now. Helping Meiko...

_No!_ Miku ordered herself. Stop it. Stop thinking like that. They were just friends. There was no point feeling so jealous. Did Phone Luka feel jealous about Miku being good friends with Rin and Len? Of course not! There was no need to worry at all. Miku was just being stupid. No need to worry. It was just homework. They were just friends. Obviously.

Miku was so intent on not worrying that she didn't notice that she was feeling jealous over the wrong Luka.

xxx

"...Rin."

"Yes, Len?"

"What's up with Miku?"

"What's _not_ up with Miku?"

"She's practically glued to that star diagram."

"Man, her head is always in the clouds. Oi, Miku!"

Silence.

"Miku!"

More silence.

_"Miku!"_

"Ah! What?" Miku looked up from her star chart, only to see two twin pairs of blue eyes staring at her. "What is it?"

"What's with that weird star thing?" Rin asked.

"Oh, this? It's a star chart," Miku smiled and puffed herself up. "I've been studying astronomy since last night. Yesterday, I got to talk with Luka."

_"W-what?"_ Rin's eyes practically bugged out. "Spill! What happened? _You_ talked with _Luka?"_

"Gumi forced me into it," said Miku, frowning at the memory of Gumi's overenthusiastic recruitment. "But...at least I got to talk with her."

"What about phone Luka?" Len asked.

"Huh?" Miku looked at him, confused. "What about her? She was happy too."

"Ughh," Rin pulled a pained-looking expression, clutching a hand to her chest. "Look at this smooth operator...she has _two_ Lukas..."

"I-it's not like that!" Miku protested, face turning red. "Phone Luka's-"

"I'm just kidding, Miku!" Rin said, pulling her hand away and grinning. "Phone Luka's over the phone, and she has her own Miku to worry about."

"Speaking of worries," Len said, "we should hurry up. At this rate, we'll be late for school."

"Crap! You're right! Miku, why do you always slow us down?"

"What? Why are you blaming this on me? Wait, stop running!"

There was no answer other than the scuff of shoes against asphalt. Miku, groaning, fumbled with her bag, trying to stuff the star chart into it before giving up, running to school while holding the book. "Wait for me!"

xxx

Miku cringed as Sonika's red pen annihilated another one of her sentences. Her piece was getting shorter and shorter by the second, drowning in a sea of red marks. Now Miku knew what Gumi meant by 'psycho with a red pen'. Sonika was definitely it.

"Your grammar isn't very good," Sonika was saying, frowning. "You mixed up your tenses twice in the same sentence."

"S-sorry..."

Sonika sighed and shook her head. "We're going to have to rework this. You don't have to write down everything Luka said in the interview. This is supposed to be part of a series of short profile pieces. I think Neru is done with hers, so I'll show you that as an example later, but...this is _way_ too long. We could cut out all the stuff where she talks about the other council members, but then the piece wouldn't tell that much about her...oh, also you slip into gushing about Luka too much."

"I-I gush?"

"Like a fountain," said Sonika, circling a large paragraph. "Like this. This entire physical description. It's creepy. You don't need to linger on how she looks. Cut it down to a sentence. Maybe two, at most."

Miku gaped. Cutting down the whole of Luka's perfection to one sentence? Impossible. "But that's-"

"I know you have a big crush on her, but you can't let that slip into your writing," said Sonika. "Geez, I don't know what Gumi was thinking...anyways, here." She handed the paper to Miku, who held it limply. "Take this, listen to my suggestions."

Miku stared at the paper. It was practically covered in corrections, suggestions, and slashes of red over words, sentences, even paragraphs. Miku nodded, gulped, and turned back towards her computer, ready to rework the profile, but then-

"Oi, Miku Miku! Get me some coffee!" Gumi.

"Hey, she's working on that profile piece now!" Sonika shouted. "Get the coffee yourself!"

"Eh, no way! Miku's the gofer! It's her job to get me coffee...and write stuff!"

Miku glanced nervously between Sonika and Gumi. "I'll get the coffee," she said, quickly dashing off to the coffee machine. She practically dumped the milk into the mug before carrying it to Gumi, who took it with a grin.

"Thanks, Miku. You're so reliable," she said. "I'm kind of jealous of Luka."

"E-eh?" Miku's eyes widened.

Gumi laughed. "I'm just kidding! You should've seen the look on your face. Anyways, I didn't call you over here to just bring me coffee." Her face suddenly turned serious and Miku involuntarily took a step back. Whenever Gumi looked like that, Miku knew that there was trouble brewing on the horizon. She braced herself for another ridiculous request, mind racing. What'll it be this time?

"What is it?" Miku asked, voice barely audible.

"Well," said Gumi, with great seriousness, "I want to know, how was your interview with Megurine Luka?"

"...eh?"

"Wow, don't look so shocked!" Gumi laughed and patted Miku on the back. "You looked like I was about to bite you or something. I just want to know how it went. I arranged all that for a reason, you know! It was an opportunity! A great opportunity!"

"Sh-shouldn't you know? You're friends with Luka! She should've told you...ah," a thought occurred to Miku. "Wh-what did she think about the interview?"

"Well," said Gumi, grinning, "I know enough of it to know that she was impressed enough to ask you to go stargazing with her. Wow, who knew you had it in you? You charmer, putting the moves on cool student council president Luka..."

Miku had no idea what to say in response, stuttering inarticulately, face a lumiscent red.

"Anyways, enough of that," said Gumi, waving a hand. "I want to congratulate you on your great success, Miku. Also, I _don't_ want you to screw up the incredible chance you have going here. There are students who would kill to be in your shoes! A private one on one rendezvous with _the_ Megurine Luka? That's definitely something."

"Ahaha...yeah," Miku mumbled.

"So! We, the newspaper club, decided to help whip you into shape for your upcoming, ah, 'stargazing', if you know what I mean."

Miku blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Miku, if you're in a newspaper club, you gotta learn how to read between the lines," said Gumi.

Miku puzzled over this. "Well, I don't know anything about stargazing. But Phone L-I mean, a friend told me that I could just tell her I don't know. I've been looking at some star charts and I can't make heads or tails out of any of them, so-"

"Well, of course you can just tell her that," said Gumi, "but wouldn't you rather _impress_ and _dazzle?"_

"I-"

"Don't worry, Miku," Gumi crossed her arms and grinned. "You're in good hands."

"Good...hands?"

"Yup," said Gumi, nodding. "I'm telling you, at this pace, you'll be the most illustrious gofer in newspaper club history."

"I'm the _only_ gofer-"

"Not another word! Your training starts now."


	6. Chapter 6

"So, this is the special Miku Training Team," Gumi said, sweeping her hands out in a grand gesture. "Rin, Len, Sonika, and me."

"Rin and Len?" Miku turned her head to stare at the twins. "What are you two doing here?"

Len scratched the back of his head. "For some reason, Gumi randomly burst into our school band meeting and dragged us here..."

"I didn't even get to finish my cake!" Rin complained.

So basically they were kidnapped by the newspaper club. Miku then turned her attention to Sonika questioningly.

"I don't even know why I'm here," Sonika said. "I'm just the editor. Lily, now that makes more sense, but me? Oi, Gumi, what're you thinking?"

"You sit next to Miku all the time, so we won't have to move chairs this way," Gumi said. "Efficiency, Sonika! It's efficiency!"

"Efficiency, my ass! If you want to be efficient, stop making these stupid 'teams' and start focusing on the paper!"

"But if Miku gets Luka, our efficiency will go up by so many percentages!"

"That makes no sense!"

Rin and Len stared at the bickering cousins before shrugging and turning towards Miku. Rin had an especially mischievous grin on her face that made Miku gulp. Apparently she got over the loss of her cake quickly.

"No worries, Miku," said Rin, thumping her chest. "Len and I will make absolutely sure that you get Luka. We happen to be experts on this subject."

"But neither of you two have dated anyone..." Miku said.

"Pfft, 'dated'...as if we need something insignificant like 'experience' in order to help you out! Don't worry, Len and I are experts, I tell you. Plus, there's Phone L-your friend to help you out too."

"U-ugh...why can't this be simple..."

"It is!" Gumi seemed to have won whatever argument she had with Sonika (or outright ignored it), appearing next to Miku like some sort of ghost. "Especially now that you have our super awesome team to help you out."

"I don't even want to do this," Sonika grumbled.

"No worries, Miku!" Gumi again. "No worries at all!"

Miku stared at the faces of her team, and felt very worried indeed.

xxx

The next day, after school.

"It seems to me," said Rin, pacing back and forth, rubbing her chin, "that what we need is to engineer a _moment."_

Miku sat at a desk in an empty classroom, notebook open before her, staring at her team of romantic helpers. "A moment?"

Rin glanced at Gumi, apparently passing the torch, and Gumi enthusiastically leapt into the conversation.

"Yes!" Gumi cried. "A moment! Picture it, if you will - a perfect, moonlit night, the stars shining, dazzling in their brilliance. You and Luka, walking together side by side, pointing out constellations. You will have a star chart, of course, and will be impressing Luka with your astonishing mastery of whatever those things say."

"I think," ventured Len, "they talk about the location of constellations."

"Yes, yes. That's for Miku to worry about later. Anyways, eventually the two of you reach a crest on a grassy hill. Standing there, side by side, you turn towards Luka. Her eyes sparkle in the evening moonlight. Your heart pounds - babump! Babump! Write this down, Miku!"

"Ah! Y-yes, ma'am!" Miku quickly wrote down, circled, and underlined the words 'babump, babump' on her paper.

"After that," Gumi continued, "the gentle breeze of the spring night stirs your heart. You move closer to Luka, breathing in her light, rose-scented perfume. Then...the two of you will have _the moment."_

"What's the moment?" asked Miku, pen poised to write down whatever Gumi had to say.

"Simple," Gumi answered. "It's this." She grabbed Sonika, who was leaning against the blackboard before, grasping her hands and staring deep into her eyes. Sonika balked, visibly trying to get her hands away, but Gumi held tight. "Oh, you stupid fool! Can't you see what I've been trying to tell you all this time? I, Hatsune Miku, am madly in love with you, Megurine Luka! Now kiss me, you stargazing pink-haired minx! And then you kiss her. Or she kisses you. Either way," Gumi let go of Sonika, who stumbled backwards hurriedly. "And _that,_ Miku, is the essence of romance."

Miku gaped at her. "Th-that sounds nice and all, but...there's absolutely no way I can say that. That's moving really fast! And it's so weird for it to happen like that..."

"Y-yeah, maybe going that far can wait for the uh, second date. Or the third," Len said. "Right now, we need to focus on giving Luka the best impression for Friday night. I, um," he cleared his throat and produced from his backpack several sheaves of paper, "I printed out some information on constellations for Miku, and Sonika and I looked over them."

"B-but Phone-my friend told me not to worry about that..." Miku stuttered in a last-ditch attempt to escape this situation.

Rin and Len exchanged uneasy glances, but Gumi and Sonika looked only confused, Gumi moreso.

"Who is this 'Phone-my friend' person anyways? Clearly she doesn't understand the importance of sweeping someone off her feet," Gumi scoffed.

"Phone my friend has a point," said Sonika. "Isn't it a little dishonest to make Luka think that Miku is competent at stargazing?"

"Of course not! We're going to make Miku into a competent stargazer, so it won't be dishonest. Anyways, if we play our cards right, the focus of the night won't be on some stargazing. It'll be on romance and the thump thump of first love!"

"Why are you so caught up with this, anyways..." Sonika sighed. "Seriously, you need to get your nose out of other people's business."

"Anyways," Rin interjected, "we need you, Miku, to get over your chronic pussiness. If you don't, there's no way you'll ever win over Luka."

"Right," said Gumi, nodding. "The two of you are meeting after Luka finishes with student council on Friday, right?"

"Right..."

"Alright! We have loads of time, then. Len, Sonika, please tutor Miku in the finer points of constellations and stargazing while Rin and I discuss tactics."

"Tactics?" said Miku.

"Tactics."

xxx

"I don't get it," Miku concluded, hanging her head. She felt tired, drained, and more than a little annoyed with the turn of events. "I mean, it's not like I don't appreciate the help, but...they're way too into it!"

"That's strange," said Luka over the phone. "The Gumi I know is usually pretty busy with running the newspaper, so it's weird that she suddenly has the time to make some kind of romantic battle squad."

"I know, right?" Miku cried. "I guess that's just how she is, though."

"I _guess_ so," said Luka, slowly. "Anyways, like I said, you really shouldn't worry too much about it. They might be enthusiastic, but really, all you need to do is tell Luka that it's a misunderstanding. That way, you two won't have to get together on false pretenses."

"Yeah," Miku mumbled as she stared at the intimidatingly large stack of printouts Len and Sonika had handed her. "False pretenses."

"Right," said Luka. "Think about it. If you were Luka, and you arranged a stargazing date with someone thinking that they know how to stargaze when they actually don't, would you be angry at them?"

Miku thought about this. "Uh..."

"I wouldn't," said Luka, "so don't worry about it."

Miku sighed and put her head on the desk. "Why is all of this so _complicated?_ Now I have Rin and Len on the team too. Rin's just going to call me a coward all the time."

"Coward?"

"Yeah," Miku said. "She always tells me that I'm a pussy. I mean, I'm scared of some things, sure, but isn't everyone?"

"Well, everyone is scared of something," said Luka. "That doesn't make them a coward. How long has she been calling you that?"

"I don't know, fifth grade? It's because I was too scared to go on a midnight trail walk during a school camping trip."

Luka suddenly laughed, and Miku felt the now-familiar sensation of a blush heating her cheeks.

"What? What is it?" Miku asked, frowning at the laughter.

"Nothing! It's just that I remember the midnight trail walk in fifth grade too."

"Did you go?" asked Miku.

"Not because I wanted to," said Luka. "I remember Gumi sort of dragged me along with her."

"Geez, she's always doing that to people. What's with all the coffee-getting when she doesn't even like coffee?"

"Yeah..." said Luka, slowly.

"I mean, it's basically just milk, but it's still strange. The Luka here told me that it's because of image-"

"That doesn't make sense," Luka interrupted, suddenly. Miku blinked, a little surprised by the protest.

"Doesn't make sense?" Miku asked.

"The Gumi I know is energetic, but she wouldn't go so far as to tell someone to grab coffee for her every minute, even if it's image," said Luka. "This entire gofer thing has been nagging at me for a while."

"Huh? Really? You didn't say anything about it when I told you, though," said Miku.

"It didn't seem too bad at first," Luka said. "Though with this romantic helper team thing, it's just... _weird_. Have you talked to Meiko over there yet?"

"Uh, no," said Miku. Meiko was, she thought, a bit too intimidating to approach at this stage, especially since she was Luka's closest childhood friend (and just childhood friends).

"Well," said Luka, "you should talk to her the next time you see her. And then tell me everything about her!"

"B-but Meiko's-"

"She might look intimidating, but she's really not a bad person," said Luka.

"Why do you want me to tell you everything about her, anyways?" Miku asked, puffing out her cheeks.

"Because from what you told me," said Luka, "Gumi is a little different from the Gumi I know. Furthermore, you told me the other day that the Luka over there is a little different from, well, me, right? If you follow that pattern, Meiko should be different too."

Miku stared up at the ceiling. Luka's words made sense. But then, if everyone was a little different, then that meant..."Wait! What about Rin and Len? How are they in your world?"

"Uh..." Luka paused. "They're pretty hyper. They're around you a lot. They're in the school band and I see them practicing sometimes. They both play guitar, right?"

"Right!"

"I don't really know much about their personalities, though."

"Okay...well, so far they sound the same. Other than the practicing. Maybe they just practice when I'm not around. Hmm," Miku frowned. "Anyways, what about me? Have you talked to me yet? Or, er, the other Miku?"

"Not yet..."

"Wow, really?" In her head, Miku imagined the Miku in the other world as being some kind of perpetually hidden girl, constantly shrouded in shadow and running away from Luka every minute. "Why?"

"The student council is pretty busy nowadays, and whenever I leave, you already left," Luka explained. "And at lunch, you're usually in the classroom with your friends, so it's hard for me to talk with you."

Miku scowled, suddenly feeling rather annoyed with the other Miku. Seriously, that girl needed to stop having a normal boring school life and start talking with Phone Luka.

"That's awful," said Miku. "Did you think of anything to approach her?"

"Actually," said Luka, "I did."

"What? Really?" Miku clutched her cellphone tigher. "Tell me!"

"I'm not sure if it'll work, though," Luka said.

"Tell me!"

"It's still in the planning stages."

"Luka, stop building up to it and tell me!"

Luka laughed. "I'll tell you later. Right now I have to help Meiko with calculus."

"Wow, again?" Miku frowned. "Is she really that bad at it?"

"Yes," said Luka.

"Isn't she the treasurer?"

"Yes, but putting together our budget doesn't require knowledge of Taylor series."

Miku shuddered. The words 'Taylor series' already sounded intimidatingly difficult. "Do you two study together a lot?"

"I guess you can say that..." said Luka, slowly. "We're both prepping for entrance exams, so..."

"Entrance exams? Wow, I keep forgetting you're a senior."

Luka laughed, embarrassed. "Yeah, it's a little strange to think that I'll be studying in college next year."

"It's not strange!" said Miku. "It's really cool!"

"Uh, right...oh, you should ask the Luka over there about entrance exams. Or Gumi. Or Meiko. From the sound of it, Gumi over where you are doesn't sound like she's studying for the entrance exams at all."

"It's only April, though. Do you really need to start studying that early? The test is in mid-January."

Luka laughed. "I've been studying for entrance exams for a while."

"So like, you're the kind of person who goes to cram school?"

"Um, yes."

"Wow..." Miku's eyes widened. So Luka was juggling studying for entrance exams, being student council president, and going to cram school. Her schedule suddenly seemed unbearably busy. "I-is it okay for me to call you randomly like this, then?"

"It's fine," said Luka. "I like talking with you. It's not every day you get to talk with someone from an alternate universe."

"Oh, I see how it is," said Miku, grinning. "You only like talking to me because I'm from another universe...and here I thought you liked me for my personality..."

"Oh! No, that's not it!" Luka protested. "You're really fun to talk to, and-"

"It's okay," said Miku, laughing. "I was just kidding."

"Geez, for someone who was kidding, you sounded really serious..." Luka muttered. "Anyways, I really do need to help Meiko right now."

"Alright," said Miku, reluctantly. "I'll talk to you later, then!"

"Right, later. Remember to talk to Meiko!"

"Yes ma'am!" said Miku, mock-saluting even though Luka couldn't see her, and Luka hung up. Miku put her cellphone back in her pocket. The intimidating stack of astronomy writings was still on her desk, and Miku eyed it warily.

Luka told her not to worry about it, and Miku believed her, but...with the latest phone conversation ending on the note that there might be differences between worlds, Miku was starting to worry. What if Luka was wrong? But she had never been wrong before. But what if, this time, the time when it really counts, she was?

Miku crept over to the stack of papers flipped through a few pages. Diagrams, longitudes and latitudes, coordinates, azimuths, and vectors assaulted her eyes. Miku winced. This was way too much to learn in a span of two days. Besides, Phone Luka told Miku to not worry about it, and she hadn't been wrong before. Right, all Miku had to do was ignore whatever crazy scheme Gumi cooked up and be herself. That's all there was to it.

xxx

"Did you look over the astronomy things, Miku?" Len asked.

Miku shrugged. "Uh, I looked over a little."

"A little?" Rin sounded shocked. "But a little's not enough! Poor Len here poured his heart and soul into creating those, you know."

"I know," said Miku, "but Phone Luka told me not to worry about it so much! I really think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion."

"I'm not," Len said. "But just in case, you should at least know a little astronomy. Otherwise, she'll be confused as to why you told her you liked astronomy."

"Right," said Rin. "You straight up told her you liked to stargaze. If you turn up and tell her that it's all a misunderstanding, she'll think you lied to her. No, wait, what am I saying...she won't _think_ you lied to her, because you did!"

"But isn't it better to tell her the truth instead of lying even more?" Miku asked.

Rin stared up at the sky, apparently thinking. "It's pretty risky..."

"Miku has a point," said Len. "It isn't good to start a relationship with false pretenses."

"There isn't ever going to be a relationship unless Miku dazzles Luka, though! What is there here to dazzle Luka with?" Rin gestured frantically at Miku. "There's nothing here but a completely ordinary girl! Gumi told me that Miku needed to _sparkle_ and _impress_ and-"

"I think Gumi brainwashed you with her crazy caffeine-fueled nonsense," said Sonika, who had suddenly appeared next to Rin. Rin gasped and nearly stumbled over at the sight of the girl.

"When did you get here?" Rin asked.

"Just now," said Sonika, looking at Rin strangely. "You're not very observant. Anyways, I don't think any of you should take Gumi's random ramblings seriously. Miku, you should just do what you think is the best thing to do. All this running about making crazy plans and discussing 'tactics' should stop."

"But...but...Gumi and I spent _hours_ yesterday talking about tactics!" Rin protested.

"Well," said Sonika, "I guess you wasted several hours then."

Miku winced. Sonika definitely didn't hold back in real life too. She could almost imagine the red pen of Sonika's words crossing out Rin's hours yesterday. "Why do you think it's a waste of time?" Miku asked. "Gumi is Luka's friend, so she should know her well..."

"Gumi is...Gumi," said Sonika. "Anyways, I just think that if you arrive there with a bunch of preformed plans and expectations, things will go wrong. Seriously, you should never plan out your dates like this. A date is two people getting to know each other, not a battle between two countries."

"Wow..." said Miku, awed. "So you've been on _dates_ before? You've dated people? You were in _relationships?"_ She could hardly imagine Sonika in a relationship with anyone - the girl seemed so busy with editing all the time. Then again, Miku only knew her in the working environment of the newspaper club.

Sonika raised an eyebrow at Miku. "Uh...are those the kind of questions you normally ask people?"

Rin sighed and put a hand over her eyes. "Miku...there's a fine line between _not_ being a pussy and being...weird."

"On the bright side," said Len, "at least she didn't ask Luka those questions during the interview."

Miku frowned, and then a thought occurred to her. "Oh...do you three know much about Meiko?"

"M-Meiko!" Rin gasped, and then clenched her heart in mock drama. "N-no way...so this is what the flighty heart of a teenage girl is like...don't tell me, you're in love with Meiko n-"

"No, that's completely wrong," said Miku.

"Why do you want to talk with Meiko?" asked Len.

Miku hesitated. "Well...it's because she's Luka's best friend, so..."

"Isn't Meiko the treasurer?" asked Rin.

"Yeah," said Sonika. "She's the treasurer. Anyways, I feel like your social schedule is crowded enough at the moment, what with the newspaper club and your upcoming date...is this thing with Meiko urgent?"

"Not especially," said Miku, "but I think it should be done."

"Uh...Meiko is usually free around when Luka gets free..." Sonika said. "At least, that's what I think...so if you want to talk to her, it'll be better to talk to her after Friday, because that way, it won't be nearly as sudden. Or as awkward. Meiko is really protective of Luka, though, so keep that in mind."

"Protective?" asked Rin. "Why is she so protective?"

"Who knows..." Sonika shrugged. "I guess it's a weird childhood friend thing."

xxx

_From: Miku_  
To: Luka  
when is meiko free?

_From: Luka_  
To: Miku  
Usually after student council.

_From: Miku  
To: Luka  
sonika said shes rly protective :( im scared lol_

_From: Luka  
To: Miku  
Don't worry about it! She's a nice person._

"A nice person..." Miku studied her phone as she waited outside student council. She looked up at the clock. Student council should be over soon. Gumi had allowed Miku to leave the newspaper club meeting early, since it was her 'ultra special stargazing day', so here Miku was, lounging outside the student council room, nerves aflutter, tapping her foot and constantly checking her phone. She wasn't planning on meeting Meiko today, but she would have to _eventually,_ so...

Miku shook herself. She knew a little bit of astronomy, enough to not look totally stupid, and she had a star chart in her bag. Still, she was going to follow Phone Luka's advice and...not worry about it. Even though Gumi had attempted to drill her on lines, Miku decided that she would try to do things her own way. If she was herself, then things should work out...right? Miku fidgeted.

It seemed like forever until the student council clubroom door opened and the student council left. There was Kaito, then Gakupo, who was talking with Yukari...and then, Meiko and Luka, Luka's head turned towards Meiko, who was talking about something or other. Luka looked absolutely radiant and Miku's breath caught in her chest. She couldn't do much other than gape stupidly.

Luka turned and glanced at Miku before saying something to Meiko. Meiko laughed and nodded, and the two of them stopped in front of Miku. Miku felt like she wanted to shrink.

"Hello," said Luka, smiling. "Are you ready to go?"

"I'm ready," Miku squeaked.

Meiko glanced at Miku, and then at Luka. "Huh," she said. "I guess she has the hair color to match her hobby."

Miku had absolutely no idea what Meiko meant, but she smiled weakly at Meiko anyways. "Hey...Meiko."

"Yo," said Meiko, off-handedly. She clapped Luka on the back and looked at Miku. "Take good care of her."

"Of course I will!" said Miku, shocked and appalled that Meiko could ever think otherwise. "This'll be the best stargazing trip ever, really!"

Meiko laughed. "You're definitely enthusiastic. I don't know why Gumi was so intent on setting the two of you up, though. She was talking about it nonstop...anyways, I should leave you two to it now. See you later, you two."

As Meiko turned to leave, a thought occurred to Miku. "Wait, Meiko!"

Meiko stopped and turned around, looking at Miku. "What is it?"

"How's calculus?" asked Miku.

Meiko gave Miku a baffled look. "Calculus? Calculus is easy."

With that, she left, leaving Miku staring after her, mind whirring. Calculus was...easy?

"Well then," said Luka, "let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

Miku followed Luka out of the school, mind in a whirl for a multitude of reasons. First, there was the obvious fact that she was walking with _the_ Megurine Luka, the girl she had a crush on for what seemed like forever. Second, however, there was the fact that Meiko had just told her that calculus was easy, and that went against everything Phone Luka told her. From what it sounded like, Meiko needed a lot of help on calculus...but Meiko had told her otherwise. But why? She could be lying, but what was the point of lying about that in front of Luka, who, according to Phone Luka, helped her a lot with calculus? And Luka didn't say anything about it, either. Miku quickly whipped out her phone and texted Phone Luka:

_meiko told me calculus was easy! :O_

"You don't need to walk behind me, you know," said Luka, turning around to smile at Miku, who jammed her phone back into her pocket.

"Ah, s-sorry!" Miku stammered, and walked a little faster so that she could catch up to Luka. "I was just, um, thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

This was her chance. "Uh...about entrance exams. They're coming up for me next semester...you must be really busy studying for them, right?"

Luka raised her eyebrows. "Getting started early on the worrying, huh? Well, it's not too bad, really. I've been studying for them for a while now. It's hard to say, but it shouldn't be _too_ difficult."

It was hard to compare the two reactions to entrance exams - Phone Luka hadn't exactly told her her workload - but Miku nodded and absorbed the information anyway. At least _this_ Luka was studying for the exams too. "Ah...I see. So do you study together with your friends a lot?"

Luka quirked her lips. "Study with friends? That sounds like it'll be distracting."

"Huh? But you can help out your friends, and your friends can help you out too, right?"

"Sure, but it's very easy to get distracted when you work with others. I like working on work on my own," said Luka with a shrug. "If anyone wants me to help them on their homework, I just help them whenever I have the time."

"I see..." there was one divergence with Luka. This Luka liked to work alone...Miku's brow furrowed. In her pocket, her cellphone buzzed and Miku took it out and checked. A new text from Phone Luka.

_What? Really? We study together almost every day! She always needs help on calculus. How is Luka and entrance exams? They're hard for me._

Miku stared at her phone, her mind slowly turning completely blank. Hard for Phone Luka, 'not too difficult' for this Luka. Luka studied alone, but Phone Luka studied with Meiko a lot. Meiko is good at calculus here, but bad at calculus over there.

"Something wrong?" Luka asked, leaning over, and Miku let out a squeak and closed her phone. The last thing she wanted was for Luka to see Phone Luka's text. Miku was relatively sure that there was some sort of weird interdimensional rule about that. Or at least, Miku would have to explain a lot of things she didn't especially feel up to explaining at the moment. Especially not with Luka so close to her, the sweet scent of her perfume wafting around Miku like an embrace, her eyes concerned and mature and-

_Snap out of it!_ "Uh...n-nothing."

"You were staring at your phone for a while," said Luka, brow furrowed. "Are you sure?"

Miku nodded, and after a moment, Luka drew away, apparently satisfied. She glanced at her watch before speaking again. "So, we still have time before it gets dark. Want to get something to eat?"

Miku's breath caught. Getting something to eat? With Megurine Luka? That almost sounded too good to be true. Miku felt a slow and probably stupid-looking grin spread on her face. "That sounds great!" she said. "What kind of food do you like?"

"I'm fine with anything, really," said Luka. "I can't eat food that's too spicy, though."

"That's fine!" said Miku. "No problem! I can eat anything too!"

Luka smiled. "Alright, then you choose. Where do you want to go?"

"...uh." Miku's mind went into hyperdrive. Luka said she was fine with anything, but of course, Miku couldn't choose just _anything._ She had to choose some place that Luka really enjoyed. Some place with food that would match up to Luka's standards...what was Luka's favorite food, anyways? Miku ran her conversations with Phone Luka in her head before it hit her.

_"What's with all the tuna?"_

_"Uh, it's my favorite food, so I usually cook with it a lot."_

Miku's eyes widened. Right. Tuna! What was a place that had good tuna? Miku racked her head. McDonalds was out. So was Yoshinoya, for that matter. Mos Burger only had burgers. First Kitchen, maybe? But no, their tuna wasn't all that good. Miku frowned. No restaurant seemed _right._ What kind of place would Luka like to go? Miku suddenly found herself regretting the fact that she didn't really eat out all that often. Where to go, where to go, where to go-

"Well?" asked Luka after a few moments, and Miku's head snapped up.

"Ah," Miku stammered, "I'm still thinking!" She laughed nervously, and then remembered the cellphone in the pocket. Right, Phone Luka! She had all the answers, didn't she? Except, Miku couldn't call her here, not with this Luka standing here at least. An excuse, she had to think of an excuse to be alone for a bit for her call..."A-actually, I gotta go to the bathroom too, so..."

Luka raised an eyebrow. "Um...okay. I'll just wait here then."

"Great! Thanks!" Miku dashed off to the bathroom. Once inside, she called Phone Luka. Thankfully, Phone Luka picked up quickly.

"How are entrance exams for Luka?" Luka asked the moment she got on. Miku thought.

"She said it's not really a big problem for her, I think," said Miku. "Oh, and she likes studying alone! And she says she can't eat food that's too spicy."

"I see..." Luka was silent for a few moments. "Okay...well, I can't eat food that's too spicy too...I can see the appeal of studying alone, though," she mused. "I wonder if this is really a difference. Sometimes I wish I could study in peace and quiet, but at the same time, my friends usually ask me for homework help."

Miku frowned. "That's weird. But what's your favorite restaurant? Luka just asked and I need to think of a place she likes to eat at!"

"Uh, my favorite restaurant...? That's a hard question..." Luka trailed off as she thought. Miku waited, occasionally checking her watch. She hoped this wouldn't take too long. Actually, maybe this wasn't the best idea. If she took too long in the bathroom, Luka might start to think weird things about her, like she had some kind of horrible bladder problem. Miku shivered at the thought.

"...oh," said Luka, "lately I've been going to this small bakery-cafe which has good katsudon."

"Uh, bakeries have katsudon?"

"Yeah," said Luka. "It's kind of a really casual place, but right now, you shouldn't take me to anywhere too fancy, or anywhere that specifically sells really good tuna."

"W-why not? Your favorite food is tuna, right?"

"It's a little weird if I barely know you and all I know about you is that you're a fan of mine."

Miku's eyes widened. She had somehow managed to forget completely about that. Right...really, the only thing _this_ Luka knows about Miku is that Miku is a fan of hers. It wasn't as though Miku had managed to tell Luka much about herself from the interview either, so really, that was the only concrete thing this Luka knows about her. If that's the case, then bringing Luka to a place that just so happened to serve her favorite food, tuna, might come off as a little strange. Luka didn't tell Miku here that her favorite food was tuna either.

"So I should just take her to the bakery-cafe? What is it?"

"It's called Zaiya," said Luka. "I'll text you the address."

"Great!" said Miku. "Thanks! I gotta go now because I'm taking way too long in the bathroom, by the way."

"Uh, okay...I didn't need to know that-"

"Bye!" Miku hung up and practically dashed out of the bathroom. Her cellphone buzzed briefly in her pocket, signalling a text, and Miku checked it as she ran. This Zaiya place didn't seem too far, within easy walking distance at least, and Miku gave a mental sigh of relief. Eventually, she reached Luka, panting as she slowed down her run. Luka stared at her, evidently surprised by her sudden entrance.

"I'm back," Miku panted before straightening up. "I figured out where to eat at, too!"

Luka looked as though she was caught between trying to say one thing or saying another, before settling on, "Really? Where?"

"Uh, it's a small bakery-cafe named Zaiya, it's pretty close to here. They have good katsudon."

Luka looked up. "Zaiya...I've never heard of it, but that sounds good."

"Huh? You've never heard of it?"

"Yeah," said Luka. "I usually eat at Panya."

"Panya?"

"It's another small bakery-cafe," Luka explained. "They have pastries, bento boxes, and other such things."

Miku felt a strange stirring in her gut, but she felt as though she had to ask. "So...what's the address?"

As Luka told her, Miku checked the text. The address was exactly the same. Miku put the cellphone back in her pocket. "Let's go to Panya, then. It's a lot closer than Zaiya."

xxx

Panya was, to Miku's surprise, actually a very small bakery cafe. There was a counter on the left that served the actual food such as katsudon, teriyaki, and more, and a counter on the right that seemed to serve the bakery side of things. Looking around at the pastries and cakes, Miku found herself wondering if the inside of Panya looked like the inside of Zaiya's. She took a few pictures of the cafe with her phone to send to Phone Luka later.

"I didn't know you liked this sort of place," said Miku, looking around. "It's pretty hole in the wall..."

Luka glanced at Miku. "Why not? The food is good, and the baked goods are delicious too. Sometimes I like getting away from things."

"Getting away from things?" What did Luka have to get away from? Her life seemed perfect.

Luka shrugged and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Getting away from things."

"What things?"

Luka shrugged, again, and turned towards the food counter. "What would you like to order? I can pay for you."

Miku frowned at the change in subject, but decided to let it go. Questioning Luka about an apparently sensitive topic wouldn't be a good idea at this delicate stage. "I can pay for myself! It's no problem."

"Are you sure? I can pay for you, you know. I'm the one who asked you out on this stargazing trip."

"Really, I can pay for myself," Miku stepped forward to the counter and stared up at the menu. There was a pretty small selection - all they had was some bento boxes and dons. Acting on Phone Luka's suggestion from the alternate universe version of Panya, Miku ordered a katsudon and paid. Taking a number and receipt, she waited for her order by the counter, staring at the pastries and bread on sale. That strawberry shortcake was looking pretty tempting...

Luka tapped her on the shoulder, jolting her out of her reverie. "Hey, I'm going to find a place to sit."

"Ah! Uh, okay!" Miku stuttered, before staring back down at her receipt. She frowned. For some reason, it was a lot harder to talk to this Luka than it was to talk to Phone Luka. Mulling this over in her head, Miku stared up at the ceiling. Why? Sure, this Luka was the Luka she was crushing on, but one would think that things wouldn't be so...so...so what? So stiff? So awkward?

Miku shook her head. It was pointless to get worked up about this sort of thing. Seriously, she got worked up over things way too easily. It was nothing, she told herself. Absolutely nothing. Sure, things might be a little awkward now, but that made sense. Miku and Luka had barely talked before in this universe, so it was natural that things wouldn't really work out so easily as that. Right.

"Number forty-seven!" called the chef as he placed a tray with a bowl of katsudon and a glass of water on the counter. Miku checked her number, grabbed it, and then carefully carried her tray over to where Luka was sitting, taking the seat across from her. Luka glanced at her order and nodded with apparent approval.

"You ordered the same thing I did," she said. "The katsudon here is good."

"Really?" asked Miku. "Yeah, I love katsudon!" Inwardly, Miku berated herself for sounding like an idiot. 'Yeah, I love katsudon!'? What kind of line was that?

Thankfully, Luka didn't seem to mind. "Did you bring a star chart?"

"Oh! Yeah!" As Miku dug around in her backpack to get the starchart, Luka left to get her food, returning a few moments after Miku managed to pull it out. It was rolled up, printed on glossy stock paper. Miku had bought it at some small shop that sold telescopes and binoculars, and even though she didn't have much of an interest in stargazing herself, she had to admit that the star chart looked rather stunning, with its detailed notation of the location of constellations as well as the drawings of the constellations themselves. Miku unrolled it and laid it on the free table pushed up next to theirs. Luka leaned forward with interest, examining the chart.

"Wow...this one is really good," she said, placing a finger delicately on the chart, apparently tracing something. "This is quality paper."

"Yeah, it looks really nice!" said Miku. "There's a lot of information on here, I think."

Luka nodded. "Definitely." She checked her watch. "Okay, we still have some time to kill before they actually come out. It's a pretty clear night today too, which is good, and the moon isn't full or close to full, so there's no risk of it outshining the stars." She snapped her chopsticks apart. "Is there anywhere in particular you want to go?"

"I'm fine with anywhere!"

"You're pretty eager to please, aren't you?" Luka said. "I guess that's why you agreed to be Gumi's gofer?"

Miku blinked, a little taken aback by the sudden shift in questioning. "Well, I guess...I uh..." Miku trailed off. There wasn't really a way she could explain herself, other than outright say something like "yeahhh I agreed to be Gumi's gofer because I actually have a huge crush on you, please go out with me!". That was a bit too forward. "I wanted to get a little more into the school's extracurriculars...haha..."

"So you're interested in journalism?" Luka asked as she began to eat, taking measured bites of her food.

"Well, journalism isn't bad," said Miku. "I'm working on the article about the interview right now. It's okay. I have to revise a lot though."

"Revise a lot? I'm guessing Sonika edited your work?"

"Yeah...how did you know?"

"Well, I'm the student council president," said Luka. "So, I'm supposed to know a little about the inner workings of the clubs."

"Wow, that sounds like a really hard role, then..." Miku frowned a little. Phone Luka barely mentioned how being student council preisdent was for her. Was this yet another difference? It seemed as though the more she interacted with this Luka, the more differences between worlds she was finding. There was some other differences too, but Miku didn't especially want to think too much about them at the moment.

"It's not too bad," said Luka. "It's just time management. Plus, Gumi always talks about how newspaper club is going for her, so it's hard to avoid knowing about how it works." She smiled, as if to soften her earlier words. "Well, anyways. You're fine with anywhere? That's pretty broad."

"Well, I guess so..." Miku said. "But I really am fine with anywhere you want to go."

Luka shook her head. "I want to know more about _you,_ Miku. So far, it seems like today, you spent a lot of time thinking about how to make things good for me. Like, for example, you had a place in mind for us to eat at, but then you changed your mind when I told you about a place I liked, right? Going stargazing was my idea too. So, I want to do something that focuses around you. Doesn't have to be anything big, we can just go and do something you like to do yourself too."

Miku stared at her. Somehow, the thought that Luka might have wanted to do something that had to do with Miku didn't even cross her mind. All this time, Miku had been so focused on trying to do what Luka wanted, she didn't even consider showing Luka more of her own self. It seemed so obvious once Luka put it in words, but Miku didn't even pick up on it until now.

"Oh..." Miku said. "I didn't...I'm sorry! I guess...I guess I was just really focused on impressing you that I didn't think about...um..." Miku trailed off.

Luka waved a hand. "It's okay. Gumi told me that you're a good person though, and I trust her judgment for most part. Even though she acts strange at times, she's usually a good judge of character. Earlier I told you that I come here sometimes to escape, right?"

"Yeah," said Miku. "You avoided the topic when I asked you, though."

Luka shrugged. "Yeah...well, part of what I want to escape is just the perception people have at me at school. Here, I can just unwind and be myself. No one really knows me here, and this place is hard enough to find that people at school don't really come here often...anyways, I digress. At school, I get a lot of letters and things like that in my locker...and I guess a lot of people want to impress me. The thing is, they're usually so wrapped up in Luka, the school idol, that they forget to show themselves to me too, since they're always focused on impressing the school idol. So I never really got to know anyone, other than my friends."

Miku winced. She was guilty of the exact same thing as the others, then. But Miku had such an easier time showing her 'real' self, or whatever it was, to Phone Luka. Why was it harder to show it to...this Luka? They were both Luka, right? And here was this Luka telling Miku that she wanted to know more about Miku too. It made no sense...Miku shook her head inwardly. "I see..."

"So now you know. Tell me about yourself, Miku," said Luka, smiling. "I want to know more about you, too."

"Well..." Miku hesitated. Where to begin? "First...I guess I should tell you that I, um, I don't really know that much about stargazing! I'm really sorry! It's just, during the interview, I got carried away, so..."

To Miku's surprise, Luka smirked. "I thought as much. I wanted to test you a little with stargazing, so don't worry about it. You definitely impressed me, though."

Miku stared at her. "Wait...wait, so all this time, you knew I didn't know how to stargaze?"

"Well, I didn't _know,"_ said Luka, "but you seemed nervous enough about it when I brought up stargazing with you that I thought that there was something going on."

Miku sighed. "All that worrying for nothing..."

"Did it really worry you that much?" Luka sounded surprised. "You know, you could have just told me that it was a misunderstanding. Well, you did, but you know."

Phone Luka had been right, then. Miku hung her head. "I guess I was just too caught up with impressing you during the interview, and I couldn't decide whether or not to tell you after that. Some of my friends thought I should, and some of them shouldn't, so it was hard to decide..."

"I see," said Luka, frowning slightly. "Alright then. Well, other than not being so interested in stargazing, what else should I know about you?"

Miku racked her brain. She wasn't really good at talking about herself, and being asked point-blank like this, she was drawing a blank. Was she really so uninteresting? She didn't have any cool hobbies like everyone else did. Miku was just an ordinary, boring person. "Well, I like to eat things with leeks. I don't know why, but it's just good tasting to me, even though a lot of people my age don't really like leeks that much. I like to go on the internet in my free time, and I like to read sometimes. Nothing fancy like Oe Kenzaburo though, um, just stuff like light novels. I used to play basketball, but I stopped for some reason in high school. I like to dance, but I don't really dance as much as I did before...oh, and I like to sing too, but I haven't sung anything in a while either..." Miku felt as though she was rambling. "Sorry if I'm boring you..."

Luka smiled and shook her head. "You're not boring me at all. Actually, I think we have some things in common."

At the sight of Luka's smile, Miku felt herself relax. "Really? I'm not used to talking about myself, so uh, yeah."

"Really," said Luka. "It's fine." She checked her watch. "We still have around thirty minutes before the stars come out. Do you still want to go stargazing? I can teach you how to use that star chart of yours, since it doesn't seem like you know how to. Of course, if you want to do something else, that's okay too. Just let me know."

"I will," said Miku, smiling at Luka. "But for now, stargazing is fine. I'd love it if you taught me how to use the star chart."

Luka smiled back. "Alright. So...I guess I should start off with this. Do you know what an azimuth is?"

"Uh...I don't know anything about physics and vectors!" Miku blurted out, remembering what little Phone Luka told her about azimuths.

Luka raised her eyebrows. "Er...okay. I have some pen and paper with me, so I guess I'll start off by telling you what a vector is. For now, it's enough to think of them as arrows with a magnitude and direction..." Luka took out a pencil and paper from her backpack and started to write. The word 'Pythagoras' was mentioned. Miku stared at the paper, eyes slowly widening as it filled with equations.

_...I'm so dead._


	8. Chapter 8

The night air was cool against Miku's skin, and she shivered involuntarily as she stepped out of the bakery-cafe with Luka. Her head was stuffed full of astronomical trivia; after covering azimuths (which was, to Miku's great disappointment, a surprisingly simple and not very useful concept), they had moved on to constellations.

"Thanks for teaching me all that," said Miku to Luka.

Luka smiled. "It's no problem. I like teaching people things."

"Really? Um, so do you want to be a teacher or something?"

"I'm not sure," Luka said, somewhat slowly. "There's a lot of things I want to do. Being a teacher sounds nice, though."

"You would make a great teacher!" Miku said. "I learned a lot more about astronomy than I did before you taught me."

Luka shook her head, still smiling. "Well, I needed to teach you all that, otherwise you wouldn't be able to properly stargaze. I mean, if we don't do that, what else would we do?"

Against Miku's will, various possible activities ran through her mind. There were a lot of different things she could think of to do, though not many of them were especially appropriate. "Uh...yeah," Miku laughed nervously, "not much else we could do. Um. So, where's a good place to go? Stargaze, I mean."

Luka looked meditatively up at the sky. "In the city, there's too much air pollution to really see them. There should be a few good spots though..." she trailed off and looked around. "I think...this way." She turned and started walking, Miku catching up with her, glancing one more time over at Panya. Miku frowned a little. It was an unassuming little bakery, easily missable with its plain sign that blended into the building's walls. Miku took out her phone and snapped a picture of the place. She would have to send it to Phone Luka and compare-

"I've been meaning to ask you for a while," said Luka, suddenly, "but why are you on your phone all the time?"

"H-huh?" Miku hurriedly stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

"It's just that, whenever I see you, you're usually on the phone," said Luka. "It sort of stuck out to me."

Crap. "I just uh...you know, texting..." Miku trailed off, chuckled weakly, and then continued. "Playing games...cellphone novels...that kind of thing."

Luka raised an eyebrow. "I see. What games do you play?"

"Um, virtual pet games mostly," Miku said. It wasn't exactly a lie - she had been into playing Tamagotchi five years ago...which wasn't too long ago, right? Anyways, Miku didn't especially want to tell Luka about Phone Luka. Alternate universe versions of one's date wasn't really first date material. Not that this was a date or anything.

"Huh...yeah, those can be pretty addicting," Luka said. "Kind of old, though."

"Do you like playing video games?" Miku asked.

Luka shook her head. "Not really. I don't own any consoles or anything like that. I just play browser games or cellphone games when I'm bored sometimes. Things like Tetris."

"Me too," Miku laughed. "Rin's a big gamer though, so whenever I'm over at her house I sometimes play video games with her." As she spoke, though, Miku couldn't help but to wonder if Phone Luka also wasn't a big gamer, thanks to the recent events with larger differences between worlds. It wasn't so obvious at first, but as more time passed, the more and more differences cropped up...to the extent that Meiko over in Phone Luka's world was bad at calculus and the Meiko here was good at it. Not to mention, the fact that there was apparently a completely different bakery from the one in Phone Luka's world here. Were these differences always there, and they just didn't notice it at first? Although, if the differences were always there, it wasn't as though Miku and Phone Luka had talked about _that_ many things, really, so it was natural that they wouldn't have begun to notice the differences until now...right? Although, these differences only seemed to be getting larger and more frequent as time passed...

"...Miku?" Luka was saying, and Miku snapped out of it. Blinking, she stared at Luka, who was looking at her.

"A-ah!" Miku gasped. "Sorry about that...I uh, zoned out."

Luka was looking at her a little strangely. "Right. Yeah, you looked preoccupied back there."

Crap. Miku swallowed and looked down at her feet. "Sorry."

"It's fine," said Luka. "We're here, by the way."

At those words, Miku realized that, instead of pavement, they were standing on grass. She blinked. Wow. She had gotten _really_ zoned out back there. Luka probably thought that Miku was a total airhead by now. Not good. Not good at all. Miku looked around - apparently Luka had taken them to the riverbank. Before Miku's eyes, the sky stretched out, dotted with tiny stars.

Luka was frowning slightly. "Hm. There's a bit too much glare from the moon, so you can't see all of them."

"That's alright!" said Miku, a bit too loudly before she quickly quieted herself down. "Uh, I mean, that's fine."

Luka glanced at her and smiled. "If you say so, then." Without further ceremony, she plopped herself down on the grass. Miku stood there, irresolute, before sitting down too.

"Well," said Luka, "after I told you about some of the constellations, are you able to point any of them out?"

Miku looked up at the sky. There were so many stars it felt impossible - how could she possibly pick out the ones Luka told her about? Miku stalled, eyes flicking across the giant sky above her. Still, she had to figure it out. After all, Luka had spent time trying to teach Miku how to stargaze back in Panya - there was no way Miku could let her down here. Not if she wanted to make a good impression on her.

Miku was very suddenly aware of the fact that this stargazing trip could very well be the last stargazing trip if she screwed up badly. Still, she told herself to relax. There was no way Luka would be so harsh so as to immediately dump her if Miku couldn't pick out any stars. It wasn't a big deal - Phone Luka had told her to relax too, right? Miku closed her eyes and cleared her mind of all her cluttered worries before opening them again. The sky stretched out before her, infinite.

Finally, Miku's eyes alighted on one constellation. "Is that...the Dorado?" she asked, pointing at it.

Luka's eyes followed the line of Miku's fingertip. "Close," she said with a grin. "That's the Volans. Dorado is a little more to the right."

Miku let out a sigh. "At least I was close...they're both fish shaped, so it's hard."

"You did well for your first try, so don't worry about it," said Luka with a smile. "It's hard to be able to pick out constellations anyways, unless they're really iconic ones like the Big Dipper."

"I've never really looked up at the sky before," said Miku. "I probably wouldn't be able to pick out the Big Dipper."

"I doubt it," said Luka. "You're selling yourself short. Have more confidence in yourself."

"Confidence?"

"Yeah, confidence," said Luka, as though that one word explained everything.

Miku looked down at her hands. Was she really _that_ not confident? Both Phone Luka and this Luka had told her to be more confident, but Miku didn't know if it was an actual fact that she was lacking confidence, or if it was just some weird Luka thing. She frowned. This sort of thing was strange, Miku felt. Wasn't it natural to be unsure of yourself if you've never stargazed before anyways?

Still, it wasn't the sort of statement one should get overly worked up about, so Miku smiled and nodded instead. "I'll try."

"Alright then," Luka nodded and looked back up at the sky.

Miku searched her mind for things to say - Luka seemed to have lapsed into a silence. Was Miku supposed to say something? How do stargazing trips work in the first place, anyways? Sure, Miku could identify a few more constellations than she did before, but she wasn't sure what that meant, or what to do with her new knowledge. Was she just supposed to point them out? But then, Luka was the one who taught her all of that. Were they supposed to just sit in silence while looking up at the sky?

If that was the case, though...Miku fidgeted. The silence weighed on her like a heavy rock. No good. She had to break it.

"S-so, earlier, at Panya," Miku ventured, "you said we had some things in common?"

"Oh, right!" said Luka, sounding as though she had been jolted out of some reverie. "I like to read in my spare time too, though I don't really read light novels as much."

"Do you like to sing?" Miku asked.

Luka stared up at the sky. "Singing...I haven't sung in a while. I guess I don't mind it. It's not like it's a big deal."

"Really?" Great. Another difference. Still, Miku decided to make sure. "So, you don't really care about it?"

"Yes," said Luka. "I've been told I have a good voice, but it's not a big interest of mine."

"Hmmm," Miku frowned. If that was the case, though, then what was with Luka's email address? Phone Luka had said that JBF was a song she had written. If the Luka here wasn't into singing, though, why would she write a song? "Okay then. What's the story behind your email address?"

"My...email address?"

"Yeah, you know, JBFflatline. It just sounds unique."

Luka raised an eyebrow. "You're pretty stuck for ideas on what to talk about, aren't you?"

Miku blushed. "It's not _that_ , it's just...I just want to know."

"It's not really an interesting story," Luka said with a brief smile. "A few years ago, I read _Neuromancer_ by William Gibson. I got the 'flatline' part from the character McCoy Pauley, who survived three flatlines – like on heart monitors - while trying to crack an AI. So people in the book call him the Dixie Flatline."

"How about the JBF part?" asked Miku.

"Well," said Luka, "I got emailed a song called Just Be Friends once. No one knows who wrote it though," Luka shrugged. "So yeah."

Miku's mind felt as though it froze at that. The song Phone Luka wrote existed in _this_ universe, but no one knew who wrote it? Luka didn't write the song, but Phone Luka did, but the song...still exists? Unless it was just some really strange coincidence, but…the similarities were there…Miku swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and decided to probe further.

"What?" Miku said.

"My friends said that the singer sounds kind of like me, which is why it's in my email address," Luka explained.

Miku opened her mouth, and then closed it. Her mind was spinning. She felt vaguely dizzy.

"Hey, are you okay?" Luka asked.

"D-do you happen to have the song on you?" Miku managed to say.

Luka was giving Miku a very strange look, but she nodded and took out her Android. After a few seconds, the song began to play from the Android's speakers - an upbeat-sounding electropop song.

Then, the vocals kicked in. Miku's eyes widened. The singer sounded so much like Phone Luka that...there was no way it _couldn't_ be Phone Luka. Miku had talked with her over the phone so much that her voice was practically imprinted in her brain. Miku's heart thudded loud in her ears.

"Sounds like me, huh?" Luka asked, her voice sounding as though it was coming from a very far distance.

"Y-yeah," Miku croaked.

xxx

"...wait...so that's what happened?" Phone Luka said slowly. Miku had called her the moment she got back home.

"Yes! That is what happened!" Miku cried. "I don't know how it got into our universe! Luka...well, the Luka here said she had no idea who wrote it, or who sang it, or anything."

Luka took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, let's take a step back. Calm down. So my song made it on the internet in your universe."

"Yeah! Is your song like, big and famous in your universe or something?"

"N-no, I just emailed the mp3 file to some of my friends and family. It was a while ago. It's definitely not secretly internet famous, I would've heard of it if it was..."

"Then how did the Luka here get her hands on your song?" Miku asked. "What does this _mean?"_

"I don't know what it means…okay...did you end up going to Zaiya?" Luka asked.

"Oh...about that too," said Miku. "Zaiya doesn't exist in this universe."

" _What?_ " If Luka sounded perturbed before, she sounded shocked now.

"I know! It's so weird! Instead, we have another bakery called Panya. I took pictures to send to you. They serve pastries and bento boxes and stuff too, and they had katsudon."

"What?" Luka's voice had gotten a little louder. "First my song somehow snuck into your universe, now an entire _place_ is different...are you sure Zaiya doesn't exist over there?"

"I'm sure! The address is exactly the same," said Miku. "Hold on a sec, let me text you the pictures."

"Alright," said Luka. Miku hung up, texted Luka the pictures, waited a few minutes, and then called her again. As the phone rang, Miku wondered, idly, as to whether or not calling someone in another universe resulted in long distance charges. Hopefully not.

"The inside looks...different," said Luka when she picked up.

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Luka, slowly. "Um. Zaiya is a little more modern, in terms of decor. Panya looks more...homey, and they have a larger cake selection. We don't have wood floor or anything at Zaiya either."

"So it's not just a name change...it really is a totally different bakery..."

"Right. I tried googling Panya too, but nothing came up other than a bistro in Hawaii. The food looks good, though."

Miku stared at her feet, mind whirring. The bakeries were completely different. Just Be Friends was in this universe despite Phone Luka not existing in this universe. Other, more minor differences exist as well - Meiko is good at calculus and Luka - the Luka here - doesn't worry about entrance exams that much. "Do you like playing video games?"

"Huh? Uh...it's not like I go out of my way to play them or anything. I usually stick to browser and cellphone games. Why?"

"Um, I wanted to see if there was any difference. Luka here doesn't really play video games either."

"This is really strange," Luka mumbled. "Not that alternate universes weren't strange already. What if the Miku here actually doesn't like leeks?"

"That's impossible," said Miku. "No matter how weird the universes get, if she doesn't like leeks, then she's not a Miku."

"Has your Luka mentioned anything about singing?" Luka asked.

Miku frowned. "She said it wasn't a big deal to her. That she's indifferent to it. She just likes listening to your song, that's it."

Luka exhaled heavily over the phone in a hiss of static. "Alright. That is a pretty big difference. I love singing."

"It just keeps adding up..."

"It does...oh, I got the chance to talk to the Miku over here too."

"Ah, you did?" Miku sat straight up, eyes wide. "H-how did it go? Wait, how did it happen? You mentioned something earlier, right? What did you do?"

"Oh, that?" Luka laughed softly. "That was nothing special. You aren't in any clubs here, so I just caught you during cleaning duty….since that's the only time when you're really on your own and not with Rin or Len, or both-"

"Wait! All that buildup...just for catching me during cleaning duty?"

"W-well, it worked."

"Still! How could you make a romantic situation out of _cleaning_ duty? That's so...so..." Miku struggled for words. "That's not...cool!"

"Uh, right. Anyways, I asked her if she wanted to go out to karaoke sometime. I thought that maybe I could give just asking her a try, because if I just wait around, I don't think an opportunity would ever really come up-"

"What did she say?" Miku interrupted.

"No."

There was a pause as the word slowly sank into Miku's brain.

"..she just said...um, just no?"

"Well, she said she was busy," Luka amended.

"N-no way!" Miku practically shouted, jumping up to her feet. "How could she reject you?" The thought of it was practically unimaginable, especially since the Luka here seemed amiable enough to hanging out with Miku. "I'm not _that_ busy!"

"I don't know," said Luka. "She might actually be busy."

"No way. That can't be true, especially since she's not even in any clubs. Even if it _is_ true, there's absolutely no way I would turn you down," said Miku, hotly.

"Wow," Luka sounded faintly amused. "I didn't know you felt that way about me."

It took a bit for Miku's own words to sink into her head, and her face flushed. "...oh. _Oh._ Uh...th-that wasn't what I meant! You know what I mean!" The words came out as if by reflex.

"Oh...so you would turn me down?" Luka sounded disappointed for some reason. Crap.

"N-no, I wouldn't turn you down either!" Miku's face was getting hotter and hotter, to her own chagrin. "It's just...I...I'm...you...that..."

"Calm down, Miku," said Luka, laughing. "I know what you mean."

"Wh-what...hey!" Miku scowled.

"I couldn't resist," said Luka, still laughing a little.

Miku sighed, the blush still stubbornly stuck on her cheeks. Good thing Luka couldn't see her over the phone. "What's wrong with the Miku over there, seriously..."

"Yeah...so my song is in your universe," Luka said, changing the subject. "I have no idea how it would get there. None of my friends travel through alternate universes or anything."

"Maybe it's just some freak coincidence," Miku said half-heartedly. Her mind was still stuck on the bizarre rejection of Phone Luka.

"I don't think so," said Luka.

"How could it possibly get here, though? That's impossible."

"We're talking with each other," Luka pointed out. "That's pretty impossible too."

"What's impossible is Miku rejecting you," Miku muttered.

Luka sighed before speaking again. "It's okay, Miku. She didn't seem weirded out or anything...just a little confused. I think I can talk to her again..somehow."

"Still! Ugh. How can you be so cool about this?" Miku asked.

"Well, you're indignant enough for two people," said Luka. "Anyways, we have bigger things to be worried about right now, like the song and the bakeries and all that."

Miku frowned. It seemed to her that she had altogether too many things to worry about. "A few months ago, all I was worried about was homework and my allowance. And before all this happened, all I was worried about was winning over this Luka! How did things become so complicated so fast?"

"Yeah, that's a pretty big change in scale," said Luka with a laugh.

"By the end of all this, my hair is going to become like...totally gray. And then people'll start calling me Hagane Miku instead of Hatsune Miku."

"Wow, that sounds like some kind of heavy metal name. Speaking of heavy metal, did you give that singing proposal of mine any thought?"

"Singing proposal?"

"Yeah! You know, singing together. Remember?"

"Oh!" Miku said. "Yes, I remember. Wait, we're going to be singing heavy metal? I can't sing heavy metal! I'll like...need a totally different voice for that..."

"Not really, you just need to change how you sing for that. Think of it as adjusting your voice settings. Anyways, we won't be singing heavy metal. Just anything you want," said Luka.

Well, Miku couldn't really see any reason to refuse. "Okay, but...what if this song leaks like Just Be Friends did?"

"Well, we'll only be sending it to each other, right?" said Luka. "I don't know how Just Be Friends got over there, but...well, anyways, we're both in our own universes, so even if it leaks somehow, we can just say something like we did a collaboration with someone over the internet, since we both exist in our own universes. If it leaks into some other universe we don't know about, well…neither of us live in that universe, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Wow..." Miku said, awed. "You got this all figured out! And collaborating with people over the internet...are you like, one of those really talented Nico Nico singers? Just Be Friends sounds really good, so-"

"Oh, no way," Luka interrupted hastily. "I'm not that good yet. Anyways really? You agree?"

"Sure," said Miku. "Why not?"

"That's great! I was just remembering how you were pretty reluctant to sing to me a while ago," said Luka with a laugh. "I was worried you wouldn't want to do this."

Miku blinked, confused. "Well, I already sang to you one time, so singing to you another time shouldn't be too big of a deal, right? What are we going to sing, anyways?"

Luka was quiet for a few moments. "Not sure. What do you like to sing usually, anyways?"

"Um...I guess I like to sing poppish music..."

"Alright," said Luka. "I'll think of something then."

xxx

Miku woke up the next morning to the loud ringing of her cellphone. She stared at it for a few long seconds until her mind kicked in and she hurriedly made a grab for it, almost falling out of her bed in the process. Scrambling upright, Miku flipped it open and placed it to her ear. "H-hello?"

"Miku!" Gumi practically screamed into her ear. Miku winced and held the phone slightly away from her ear. "How did it go?"

"What?" Miku stared up at the clock. "Wait. It's six in the morning! Why are you calling me so early? And how did you get my number?"

"Miku," said Gumi, "if you're a newspaper editor, you have to know this kind of thing. Besides, I like getting up early. It's better for digestion."

"Uh...digestion...? Are you sure about th-"

"Anyways! Stop dodging the question! How did your super heart-pounding date with Luka go?"

"I-it wasn't a date, and it went fine!"

"Did you confess?"

It was way too early in the morning for this. Last night's revelations were still bouncing around in Miku's head – confessing to Luka seemed like a problem from another planet. Miku rubbed her forehead. "Of course not, it's way too early for that. We just ate and looked at the stars."

"Wow," Gumi said. She sounded vaguely disappointed, and Miku thought she could hear some crunching noises in the background. "Well, don't lose heart! You'll definitely be able to confess next time!"

Miku heaved a sigh as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Are you eating?"

"Yeah. I'm eating these weird veggie chips Sonika got me. Speaking of Sonika, she wants to know how that article is going."

"Ah!" Miku sat straight up. She had almost completely forgotten all about that after last night. Miku made a mental note to herself to get some sort of planner. "Uh..." Miku got out of bed and made her way to her computer, tapping the keyboard's space bar repeatedly to wake it up. "I'm working on it. When do I need it in by?"

"You should get it in by next week," said Gumi. The crunching noises continued.

Miku opened her drawer and retrieved Sonika's marked up version of her article. It shouldn't be too hard to revise, really. Sonika had been extremely clear in what she didn't like, so if Miku just worked on fixing those a little bit every day, getting it in by next week would be no problem at all. "I can get it in by then."

"Awesome. I know you like Luka and all, but don't get too distracted by her! You're still a member of the newspaper club."

Miku furrowed her eyebrows. Wasn't Gumi the one who was really enthusiastic about Miku getting together with Luka? What was with this sudden change in terms of priority? What about the Miku Training Team? Not that Miku especially wanted it, but...well, whatever. Probably it was because Miku already had her stargazing trip with Luka, so Gumi decided to let it up a bit, or something of that sort.

"I won't," said Miku.

"Great!" said Gumi. "See you Monday." With that, she hung up. Miku took the phone away from her ear and sat back in her chair with a sigh, staring at the open article before her. There was so much to do and think about that she didn't even know where to begin. The article was only the least of her worries. With a sigh, Miku clicked over to check her email. There was a new one from the Luka here that Miku opened.

_Hi Miku,_

_Are you okay? By the end of last night, you didn't look so good. If you're sick, you should rest today. I attached Just Be Friends because you seemed like you were interested in it. I'll see you on Monday; have a good weekend! I hope you feel better soon._

_Luka_

Miku stared at the email, and then at the attachment – an mp3 file titled JBF. She licked her suddenly dry lips. By all rights, that mp3 file shouldn't even exist in this world. A part of Miku was happy that Luka had taken the time to send her an email checking up on her condition, but...all this alternate universe stuff was complicated.

"Argh…it's too early in the morning for this," Miku mumbled, putting her head on the desk.


	9. Chapter 9

"Wait," said Rin, holding up a hand. "So you're telling me that somehow, something from the other universe came over to this universe?"

Miku nodded. "Yeah. You just listened to it. This song - Just Be Friends - it was sung by Phone Luka."

Rin let out a loud sigh and flopped back on Miku's bed. "Geez. This just keeps getting more and more complicated! How did this all start, anyways?"

Miku blinked as she swiveled around her seat. "The song?"

"No! All this alternate universe stuff. How did you get Phone Luka's number in the first place? It couldn't just have mysteriously appeared on your phone, you know. There has to be a reason, right Len?"

There was no answer from the boy.

"Len!" Rin said again, louder.

"Huh?" Len looked up from his seat on the floor, removing his earphones. "What did you say?"

Rin sighed and rolled over so that she was on her belly. "I _said,_ there has to be some sort of reason why Miku randomly got Phone Luka's number, right? It couldn't just have _happened."_

"I don't know," said Len with a shrug. "This song just happened, right? Speaking of, this is a great song, the lyrics are sad but the melody is so upbeat that it creates this sort of dissonance between the-"

"Who cares about how it sounds?" Rin threw her hands up. "This kind of thing is serious! Sure, it was fine when it was just Phone Luka, but with all these new differences, aren't you getting kind of worried?"

Len frowned. "These differences aren't necessarily _new._ We just assumed that the other universe is the same. It's perfectly possible that it isn't, and we're just finding out all the differences now, right Miku?"

Miku, for her part, wasn't exactly sure what to say. She spun around the chair a little more, thinking. Len had a point - they did just assume that the other universe would be around the same, but really, more and more differences were cropping up as time passed. Clearly the universes weren't as similar as they believed before. Still, that wasn't the problem. Miku had by now gotten a little more used to the idea of the universes having their own differences. "Right, but...that's not the problem right now. Isn't the song crossing over really weird?"

Len shook his head. "Sure, it's weird, but you can already talk with someone from another universe. Having a song cross over kind of goes along with that, right? Phone Luka can send you things over the phone too, so-"

"That's it!" Rin cried, punching the bed and sitting straight up. Miku and Len, startled, looked over at her. There was some wild gleam in Rin's eyes that reminded Miku a bit too much of Gumi for comfort, and Rin was looking at Miku and Len as though she expected them to say something.

A long silence stretched. Miku and Len looked at each other, and then at Rin, and then back at each other before Miku couldn't take it anymore and broke the silence. "E-er...what's it?"

"Geez, that took you a while. Anyways, what we need to find out is _when_ Luka got Just Be Friends," said Rin.

"When?" Miku echoed.

"Right, when. If it's at like...the same time or after you started talking with Phone Luka, then...it's pretty much all your fault why the universes are messed up," said Rin.

"B-but I didn't even do anything-" Miku protested, but Rin ignored her.

"But, if it's _before,_ then we can just say that the universes are messed up in general, that's why things can cross over and be weird and stuff. Basically, what we need to find out is whether or not it all began with you, right?"

Rin's words sunk into Miku's head. Whether or not it all began with her...what Rin was saying did make a lot of sense. If Miku could find out the _when,_ then that would at least clear up whether or not the universe crossing over was due to Miku's communications with Phone Luka, or if it was because their two universes were already tied up with each other from the start. The latter would be a lot more relieving, Miku had to admit. If it all began with _her,_ then it made no sense. Why would the universes crossing over begin with Miku? She was just a normal high school student, after all. Try as she might, Miku couldn't think of a single reason why the universes crossing over would have anything to do with her.

"Right," Len said. "And before you two started communicating on your cellphones...we didn't even know that an alternate universe existed. So it had to have started then, if her getting Just Be Friends came after."

"So after finding out the when, all we have left is the why!" Rin grinned, looking rather satisfied with herself.

"I can't think of a why at all though..." Miku sighed. "It just _happened._ I asked Gumi for Luka's phone number, but she didn't give it to me, and then after that, it just randomly appeared in my address book. Nothing connects to that."

"If that's the case, then Luka getting Just Be Friends before would make more sense, right?" Len said. "That way, we'll know that there's some precedent for the phone number appearing in your cellphone. It'll just be the universes being strange in the first place, rather than having anything to do with you in particular."

"I guess..." Even with that though, it wasn't very satisfying. Miku wanted to know the real why - to have it just dismissed as 'universes doing strange things' sat like a weight in her stomach. She'll always carry around the question of why the universes were even crossing over in the first place, so to have it unsolved forever...

"Geez," Rin cut in, frowning, "why are you two even wondering about this? Seriously, all we need to do is ask when Luka got Just Be Friends! That's simple! Just email her about it."

Miku blinked and looked back at her computer. "Email her?"

"Yeah! Don't tell me you're too scared to do it. You went out on a date with her, so-"

"It wasn't a _date,_ we just looked at the stars together!"

"Yeah, sure," said Rin, waving a hand. "Same thing."

"It's _not_ the same thing-"

"A-anyways," Len interrupted hurriedly, glancing up at the clock mounted on the wall, "Rin and I should get going...we have school band practice in a bit."

"Oh right," Rin groaned, flopping back down on the bed. "Ugh...that's such a pain!"

Under normal circumstances, Miku would have laughed and said something to the effect of "yeah, eating cake is such a pain", but after Just Be Friends crossing over from Phone Luka's world and Gumi's somewhat different behavior earlier that morning, Miku was a little more cautious. Instead, Miku looked over at Rin and Len. Sure, they looked the same as they ever did, blonde, blue-eyed twins, Rin with her white ribbon and Len with his mussed hair pulled back in a short ponytail, but...

"Practice is a lot of work, huh?" said Miku. Of course, she knew it wasn't - the school band club usually just ate cake and talked all day, from what she saw on her visits with Rin and Len to practice on occasion, but somehow they managed to pull off sounding decent during concerts.

Rin sighed dramatically. "Yeah...you visited with us before, so you know what it's like. It's like a boot camp in there or something!"

"I like it," said Len.

"Sure, but...there's so much work! What kind of sadistic club schedules a practice on the weekend?"

"A lot of them do, actually..." said Miku.

"There's something wrong with our school," Rin shook her head. "You know what would be great? If school band was mostly eating sweets and talking, and we're all naturally talented!"

"That's not great at all! We wouldn't be getting _any_ work done if all we do is eat cake," Len got up from the floor, dusting off his jeans. "It wouldn't even be a music club if it was like that."

"Whatever! Miku agrees with me, right?" Rin lifted her head from her pillow and looked at Miku.

Miku swallowed and managed a weak grin. "Y-yeah...I agree with you."

xxx

When Rin and Len left for school band, Miku saw them off. She looked at them as they walked off, talking with each other about something or other, vanishing into the distance. They looked exactly the same, but...but...

Miku knew for sure that the school band had been relatively relaxed before. At least, they never had weekend practices, and Rin never complained. While they had to have practiced sometimes, it was an easygoing group of students for most part. Certainly nothing that could be described as 'sadistic'. Miku closed her eyes, mind racing. This was definitely not normal. Okay, Gumi's behavior earlier was a little weird, but it could still be excused. This, however, couldn't. This was, actually, the complete opposite of what Miku knew about the school band. Not to mention, Rin's attitude towards it was completely different from how it was before.

Could this be what the school band was like in Phone Luka's universe? Miku took a breath and realized that she had been doing nothing but standing there by the doorway. Shaking her head roughly, Miku went back to her room, but her mind was still in a whirl. This made no sense at all. How could the school band be relaxed one moment, but strict the next? The way Rin talked too was as though Miku already knew about the difficulty of the school band club. Miku pressed a hand to her suddenly cold forehead. What did this mean? Gumi's behavior and the school band swirled in her mind, over and over, mixed in with all her previous thoughts about the Just Be Friends file and the differences between universes. If things were becoming different over _here,_ then...what? What does that mean?

This was too much for Miku to figure out on her own. She was shaking by the time she finished typing out, without even knowing it, her email to Luka about the date of the Just Be Friends file. Miku read it over, making sure that it was coherent. It was a simple message, really -

_Hi Luka,_

_Thanks for the song and the stargazing! :D The singer of JBF sounds a lot like you xD when did you get the song? I feel sick but I should be better on Monday. See you then! :)_

_Miku_

"Does that sound okay?" Miku mumbled to herself. It did sound a bit...informal, but with all these new revelations, all Miku wanted was for them to be solved, and then to return to her simple school life. She never really realized how comforting the stability was until now. Now, it seemed as though the ground underneath her might give way at any time, with all these changes in the universes. After sending the email, Miku closed her eyes and pressed cool fingers to her forehead, taking deep breaths before feeling her cellphone vibrate in her pocket. She grabbed it and flipped it open. The notification for a new mp3 file received blinked on the screen, shortly followed by a text.

_From: Megurine Luka_   
_To: Hatsune Miku_   
_Hey! I attached my part of the song._

_What song?_ Miku thought, stupidly, before the memory came back in her head. Right...the duet. That was fast...Luka must have had the idea ready for a while. Then again, she did first bring up the subject weeks ago. Miku'll look at the file later, though - right now, Miku needed to tell Phone Luka what just happened. Without a second thought, she called Luka, who answered almost immediately.

"Miku?" said Luka when she answered, and the sound of her voice brought almost palpable relief to Miku.

"Luka!" Miku practically shouted, grasping onto the phone with both hands. "So many weird things are happening now! I got the mp3 you sent me, by the way, but something just happened."

"Huh? What happened?" Luka's voice instantly became more alert.

"You know how I said the school band never practiced and just ate cake all day? Well, it's...it's _different_ now. Rin just told me that they had weekend practices, and that it was strict all the time."

"What?" Luka said. "Then, that's the complete opposite...what do you mean? Did it just become like that, or was it always like that from what she said?"

"It sounded like an 'always'. She talked about me going to practice and seeing how hard it was."

Luka exhaled in a fuzz of static over the phone. "That's...so her memories are different too..."

"Is the school band over there like that?" Miku asked.

"I think so. I'm pretty sure they have weekend practice," said Luka. "I don't know how strict it actually is, but they definitely practice a lot."

"That's what I thought...oh, Gumi was acting different this morning too!"

"How was she different?"

"Well..." Miku thought. How _was_ she different? Really, the only thing that stuck out was that she told Miku not to be too distracted by Luka. But that was exactly it, right? Up until then, it seemed as though getting Miku and Luka - well, the Luka in Miku's universe - together was Gumi's primary goal. Telling Miku not to get too distracted by Luka went against the entire idea of Gumi taking the time out of club to create a Miku Training Team. "She told me not to get too distracted with winning over the Luka here, because I'm still a member of the newspaper club."

"Huh," said Luka. "I don't see what's odd about that. You are a member of the newspaper club, right? Gumi might seem scatter-brained, but she's actually pretty dedicated to the school newspaper-"

"Exactly! She wasn't dedicated to the school newspaper before!...well, she was, but here she was always all about getting me together with Luka, you know? Remember, she created the Miku Training Team and all that."

"Oh right...that entire idea is strange. Creating a romantic battle squad, that's pretty odd, don't you think?"

"I don't know," Miku shrugged. "Gumi is odd, I guess. But that's not the point. The point is that she's a little more serious about club now...I can't really say it's a big change yet, because she might just be loosening up about Luka and I after the stargazing trip, but is there anything weird happening over there too?"

There was a pause as Luka thought. "Well, I didn't notice anything strange, but I was busy putting together the song, so I've mostly stayed in my house. What it sounds like though is that...things from this universe are crossing over to your universe."

"Like the Just Be Friends file?"

"Sort of, but more than that," said Luka. "It's not just a file anymore - it's...bigger things, like how a school club operates, and how people act."

"How people act..." Miku said, slowly, and shuddered. That...was definitely big. In fact, that was downright scary. If things as big as those are changing, then...what does that mean? Rin and Len, her best friends since childhood - would their personalities be different? Would they eventually be completely changed? Miku thought back to Luka and Phone Luka. Sure, they were similar, but at the same time, they were different; different enough for Miku to notice a difference. And Rin telling Miku that she had seen school band practice for herself...what does that mean? Sure, Miku did go with her to watch practice, but...but...but _what?_ Rin's memory of it was different from Miku's. She had remembered Miku seeing strict practices, Miku remembered seeing band practice as relaxed and easygoing. So...what did that mean? What changed? Was it a slow change that happened over days, bits of memory becoming replaced, the club itself slowly turning into something else? But at the same time, Gumi's behavior had seemed jarring too, right? Was there a specific point when it all happened?

"...Miku?" Phone Luka was saying, and slowly Miku returned to reality. She realized that she was clutching her cellphone so tight her knuckles were white, and quickly she relaxed her grip. The last thing she wanted was for her phone to break - then she'd be cut off from Phone Luka forever.

"Yes?" Miku said, faintly.

"Are you okay?" Luka said.

"I...um...I'm just...this is all a lot," Miku admitted. "This is a lot to...to handle."

"It is," said Luka, softly. "I don't know how my world is affected too, but...I really don't think this is good."

Miku swallowed and stared down at her toes. That was an understatement. "Yeah. This isn't good."

"Okay," said Luka. "I'm going to go talk to Gumi and Meiko. I'll let you know if they're acting any differently. Don't panic."

Miku laughed weakly. "What? Panicking? Me? I'm not panicking."

Luka laughed too. "Right, you're in control. I'll call you right after I talk with them. Let me know if anything else happens, okay? We're in this together."

Miku managed a grin. "Yeah. Um...I'll let you know."

"Okay-" Luka began, but then Miku cut her off, her mouth moving faster than her brain.

"Call back soon," she said.

There was a brief pause, then: "I will."

With that, Luka hung up. Miku stared at her phone for a long time, until the 'call ended' message went away, and then flopped back against her chair, staring blankly at her computer screen. Her mind felt overloaded; she could barely think. When she received the response to her email from the Luka here, Miku opened it with a mechanical movement. Her eyes lethargically read the email:

_Hi Miku,_

_I got the song on April 23rd. I'm sorry to hear that you're sick. See you on Monday, get well soon!_

_Luka_

"Huh," Miku mumbled. "April 23rd."

There was a pause as the date slowly meandered its way through Miku's mind. Then, Miku sat straight up, eyes wide. With renewed attention she stared at the computer screen.

"I got the song...on April 23rd..." Miku read, slowly. April 23rd...Miku squeezed her eyes shut, and then opening them again she leapt up from her chair, almost spilling over the trash can in the process. Her heart was beating a jungle rhythm as she looked at the month of April. There it was, the date, circled in red, plain for anyone to see. April 23rd...the day after Miku found Phone Luka's in her address book.

The room seemed to swing around her. It felt as though she was falling, even though she was standing straight up. Miku took a deep breath and placed a hand against the wall to steady herself. She remembered calling the mysterious number on her cellphone, reaching Luka, and excitedly circling the next day for the 'date'. Back then...things were so much simpler. Miku could almost laugh thinking about it.

_Now that we have the when,_ thought Miku, _all we have left is the why._

Finding out the why, however, would be the real problem. At that moment, Miku's cellphone buzzed. She grabbed it from the desk and answered.

"How did it go?" said Miku.

"Well," said Luka, "Meiko says that she's getting calculus. Not fully there yet, but...getting there. At least, she doesn't need me to help her."

Miku frowned. That could have happened naturally, for all Miku knew. She needed more information. "How about Gumi?"

"She's not making any romantic battle teams, and she's not drinking coffee, but she was talking about rainy tuna for some weird reason."

"Rainy tuna?" Miku furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't think she ever said anything about that."

"Yeah, I didn't understand that," Luka said. "Anyways, it's hard to tell right now. On Monday I'll go and see how the clubs are doing and let you know if they're any different."

"I wonder if Zaiya is Panya or if Panya is Zaiya..."

"That's a good question. We should go and check that. Anything else happen on your end?"

Miku looked back at her calendar. "Well, the Luka here got Just Be Friends on April 23rd."

"April 23rd? Um, that would be..."

"The day after I called you! You know, the day we set as our first date?" Miku managed a smile, even though Luka couldn't see.

There was a pause, and then Luka laughed. "Oh, right, right! I should've known that! I'm sorry."

"You're lucky I'm so forgiving," Miku laughed too.

"I'm definitely lucky. Anyways," Luka's tone became more serious, "if it's the day after we first talked, then that means that our universes crossing over started with us."

"Yeah...I just don't know how it started."

"Still, the effects seem to be getting bigger and bigger. It started out as just us talking, right? And then the song crossed over. Then...we started to figure out that our universes are different...and now we're starting to see these differences happen in our own universes too."

Miku stared up at the ceiling. Differences happening in their own universes..."I don't get it. Are we turning into each other's universes?"

"I don't know...it's too early to tell."

"I don't really want to wait until it's too _late_ to tell though," said Miku. "By then things might start to get really bad."

"Yeah," said Luka, "I don't want to wait until it's too late either. Still, at least now we know that everything started on April 22nd. I think if we just try to remember everything that happened that day, and maybe the day before, we'll get it. _Something_ must have happened to cause all this. We just have to figure out what, and maybe then, we'll find out how to fix it so that our universes will stop melting into each other."

Miku leaned back against the wall with a sigh. "We have a lot of work to do..."

"Work? We haven't even gotten to the duet yet."

Surprised, Miku laughed. "Oh, right! That's when the _real_ work starts."

xxx

The next day, Miku set off in search of Panya. She quietly opened the door and slipped out of her house. It was still early in the morning, so her parents were asleep. The street outside was completely empty too, other than the neighborhood cat dozing on a high stone fence. Looking at it, Miku wondered if the cat has changed with all these recent revelations. It was possible.

Since it was so early on a Sunday, Miku passed few people on her way to the bakery. Whoever she passed, though, she wondered. Were the changes in the universe applying to people she didn't know, or was it a localizad event? Sure, for all Miku knew, things began on April 22nd, but what if there was someone else in the world who managed to call someone from another universe too? What if it all began a long time ago, and Miku only really started noticing it now because it just so happened to have happened to her?

Miku shook her head. Thinking about things like that so early in the morning led to nothing but a headache. For the past sixteen years of her life, Miku had been living in a consistent world. She didn't even know that another universe existed before April 22nd. If the universes had been changing all along, surely she would have noticed _something_ about it. Even so, Miku still didn't know how she got the cellphone number in the first place. What led to that event? No matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't think of any answers.

Thankfully, Panya was relatively close to her house. When she arrived there, she looked up. It was still Panya - it didn't suddenly morph into another bakery. It was pretty busy inside too, despite the early hour on a weekend. Miku stepped inside and looked around. Wood floors, short tables, the fresh smell of baking bread - all of it was the same. There were people sitting at the tables reading their newspapers or typing on their laptops, there was the cashier behind the counter smiling as she handled each order, the cooks in the back preparing the breakfasts. Everything was identical.

"Miku?" someone said, and Miku turned to see Luka, standing behind her.

"Ah! Luka!" Miku took a step back and scrutinized her. She looked the same, pretty much, dressed normally in a white blouse and jeans. But then, if _Luka_ was different, then...that would mean that she would be like Phone Luka, right? But she still wouldn't be Phone Luka, because she wouldn't have the memories of it...or would she? But then, who would Phone Luka be? Would she be different too? The thought of that made Miku's stomach flip sickeningly. If Phone Luka changed too, if she forgot everything, then Miku would be...the thought of it was almost enough to make Miku feel physically ill.

"I thought you were sick," said Luka. "You should be resting in your house."

Miku laughed nervously. "I uh, I feel better now. Why are you up so early?"

Luka shrugged and pointed at the messenger bag she was carrying. "I'm just here to get homework done. I like to get it done in the morning."

"Oh, that's pretty dedicated..." Miku trailed off and then glanced at the bag. "How are entrance exams?"

Luka laughed. "Entrance exams are going as well as they can go."

"Well, good luck..." Miku trailed off. Her eyebrows furrowed. Luka had... _laughed._

That in and of itself was nothing big. Laughing was perfectly normal. However, up until then, Miku had never heard Luka - this Luka, at least - laugh at all. Maybe it was nothing important, though. After all, people laugh. That was perfectly natural. Right. Miku shook her head inwardly. All this universe stuff was making her paranoid too. She shouldn't make a big deal out of nothing. Some things just were, and the important part was that apparently Luka still wasn't too worried about entrance exams, so at least _that_ didn't change...not yet, anyways.

"Thank you," said Luka. She glanced at her bag before looking back at Miku. "I should get to studying now, so..."

"Oh, right!" Miku stuttered. "Sorry about that. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Luka smiled. "See you."

Leaving the bakery, Miku looked back at the sign. Instead of Panya, it now read 'Zaiya'.


	10. Chapter 10

That can't be right.

Miku stared up at the sign, eyes reading the word over and over, but no matter how many times she read it, it always stayed the same. There it was, clearly lettered - Zaiya. There was no possible way to misread it. Miku took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and counted up slowly.

_Don't freak out,_ she told herself between numbers. Still, she couldn't help but to feel the panic rising in her body, infiltrating her arms, her legs, her fingers and toes and everything. Her heart was banging against her chest like a lunatic and her head was pounding in gleeful accompaniment. The ground felt shaky underneath her. Miku pressed her hands against her face. This couldn't be happening. Things had been so _normal_ a few days ago, before Miku found out about the Just Be Friends file, and the school band's changing behavior, and the differences between universes. How could life be so different now? There was no way this was happening. No way. Her breaths were coming in short, fast spurts, and she was shaking so bad it felt like her legs would give out at any moment.

Then, her cellphone buzzed. The mere feeling of it immediately made Miku feel more grounded. She answered it quickly.

"Did you check Panya?" Luka asked over the phone.

Miku dared to open her eyes. The signboard obstinately read 'Zaiya'. Miku opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She took a few steps backwards and sat heavily at one of the tables outside Panya - or rather, Zaiya.

"Miku?" Luka sounded worried. "Did it change?"

Miku made an affirmative noise.

"Oh...I'm on my way over to the bakery now. I'll let you know if it's any different here too," said Luka. Over the phone, her voice sounded calm. Miku envied her that. Luka seemed to be in control of everything.

"Okay," Miku managed. She looked at the bakery again. It appeared to be indistinct, fuzzy around the edges, as though she was staring at it through a fogged window. For a moment, Miku thought the signboard read 'Panya', but after a blink, it would go back to 'Zaiya'. It looked... _wrong_ and Miku tore her gaze away, focusing her eyes on her fingernails, staring at the comforting teal color.

After too long, Luka started speaking again. "I...can't tell."

"What?"

"I can't really see it," Luka said. "It's like...it can't decide on what shape to take."

Miku looked up at the bakery again. The fuzziness around the edges had begun to steadily encroach on the rest of the bakery. It hurt her eyes to look at - it was like putting on glasses with too-strong prescription - and Miku looked away. "Same here..."

"This is not supposed to be happening," Luka muttered, and Miku couldn't help but to laugh, a half-wild, shaky one.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that bakeries aren't supposed to look like that," Miku said. "W-what do you think is going on? Are our...are our universes switching places?"

"I don't know..." Luka said, quietly. "If we can't even tell what the bakery is, then that's...not good. The weird thing is that no one other than us is noticing it." The more Luka spoke, the more Miku began to calm down, despite the subject matter. Steadily, her arms stopped shaking, and her heartbeat became more regular. She had Luka with her - she wasn't alone in this wild universe mess.

"Really?" Miku looked around. Sure enough, what few people there were on the sidewalk were going about their business normally, none of them even sparing the bakery a second glance. Some of them disappeared inside the now-hazy doors of the bakery and Miku shuddered. How could such a thing look so normal to them? "You're right...and some people even went inside. How could they do that? It looks so weird!"

"Well," said Luka, "I'm guessing that to them, the bakery looks the same as always. I don't know why it's only affecting us...maybe it's because we're the only people aware of there being another universe?"

"Why would us being aware make things go crazy?" Miku got up from the chair and looked at the bakery. It was only a vague outline of a building now, the rest of it too muddied and blurred to see fully. If that was what the outside looked like...Miku could only shudder to think of how it would look on the inside.

"I don't know, but it's the only thing I can think of. Wait, let me try something...hold on," Luka said, and hung up. Miku was left staring at her cellphone dumbly until Luka called again a few minutes later.

"What did you try?" Miku asked.

"Well," said Luka, "I asked people what the name of the bakery was."

"Huh? But aren't you standing in front of it? Won't they think you're weird?"

"I told them I lost my contacts and I had to meet someone at Zaiya, but I couldn't read the sign of the bakery since my eyes are so bad," Luka explained.

"Wow...good thinking! What did they say?"

"It's strange," said Luka, her voice suddenly becoming quiet. "Some people said Zaiya, and some people said Panya."

Miku glanced uneasily at the hybrid bakery. "So...what does that mean? Are the people who say Panya from my universe?"

"Wait," said Luka. "You're saying that people are crossing over too?"

"N-no!" Miku said, but paused as she thought about it. "Well...maybe. It's possible, right?"

"Does that mean that they switched places with their other universe selves if they did, or if there are two of the same person walking around?"

"I don't know, but that's one way to explain the Zaiya-Panya thing, right?" As she spoke, Miku was beginning to realize how vast all of this is. This wasn't just her and Phone Luka and her school - this was two entire universes. Just thinking about it made her head hurt. Miku shook her head, her balance lurching treacherously as she did, and she began to walk home, eyes trained on the ground.

"You could say that, but the bakeries are starting to merge into each other too," said Luka. "Unless, they really aren't, and we're seeing both universes at the same time."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, like we're seeing both of the bakeries at the same time, just...overlaid."

Miku's head hurt. "This is so complicated...remember back when I was confused about azimuths?"

Luka laughed. "Azimuths are nothing compared to this."

"What can we do, though..." Miku said, staring up at the sky. Even though it was early on a Sunday, Miku already felt ready to sleep. "We don't even know what's going on...so how can we stop it?"

"I don't know," said Luka, "but we have to try something. For now, though, there's not much we can do other than get information. Maybe we'll come up with something."

"Yeah," Miku mumbled. "Maybe...I can't believe I have homework to do on top of all this too. Geez. Teachers should be more considerate."

"I can't concentrate on studying for entrance exams now either," Luka admitted. "This is a lot to handle."

"Ugh. That settles it! After all this, we need to do something special," Miku said.

"Something special?"

"Yeah! You know, like going to an amusement park! Something to reward ourselves after going through all this."

Luka laughed. "We're in different universes, remember?"

"So? After fixing our universes, I'm sure we'll be able to think of a way to get around that," said Miku. "Anything is possible."

xxx

It was no use. Miku couldn't concentrate. Groaning in frustration, she saved the Word document and put her head on the desk. There was no way she could do her homework when the universes were changing like this. Even though Luka and Miku had exchanged theories about what was happening, they were still only that - theories. There was no way of finding out what's really happening, and furthermore, Miku couldn't think of any way to fix things, despite what she said to Luka earlier about the amusement parks.

When she returned home, her mother and father acted the same as they always did. Personality-wise, they didn't change at all. Still, the school band, Gumi the day before, and the bakeries...all of that was almost enough to drive Miku crazy with worry and fear. After all, this wasn't just a matter of a hard homework problem, or joining a club, or learning about azimuths. This was an entire universe - two entire universes, in fact. If it wasn't for Phone Luka, Miku didn't know what she would do. She would be entirely alone, with everything changing around her. Phone Luka was her only point of stability - the only constant in what seemed like an increasingly unstable universe.

This was too big for Miku to wrap her mind around. The date April 22nd ran round and round in her head. She listlessly navigated over to her music player and played Just Be Friends for what seemed like the billionth time. This mp3 file shouldn't be here. By all rights, it was _wrong_ for it to exist in this world.

Miku collected the facts in her head and thought them over. Zaiya and Panya were hopelessly confused. The school band was now different. Just Be Friends exists in this universe. Gumi was...different, but Miku decided to not think about that too much until she went to school. Right - tomorrow was when she could confirm everything for sure. After all, tomorrow was a school day, and at school, Miku would not only be able to talk to Rin, Len, and Gumi, but she would also be able to see how the newspaper club was, and how things were in the school band.

Just Be Friends ended. Miku stared up at the ceiling of her room. Tomorrow was it, then, in terms of finding out what was happening, right? At least, she would have a much better idea of what was happening. Miku felt a lump in her throat and swallowed. It was too much. She had been an ordinary teenage girl on April 22nd. Now, she wasn't even sure _what_ she was anymore. She definitely wasn't an ordinary teenage girl, at least.

Miku didn't even know she called Phone Luka until she felt the coolness of her cellphone against her ear and the sound of the tone ringing. Luka picked up almost instantly.

"Miku?" she said.

"Tomorrow's it, right?" said Miku, leaning back in her chair.

There was a brief pause. "Well, we'll know a lot of things tomorrow, but I don't know if tomorrow is going to be _it."_

Miku laughed. "I guess. We still don't know how to fix things, after all."

"Fixing things is going to be the hard part," Luka said, laughing too. "Figuring things out is going to be easy compared to that. I don't know where to start with fixing two universes."

"Yeah..." Miku stared up at the ceiling, and suddenly, she felt an odd pang in her heart. Luka had such a normal life before, but then Miku called her and screwed everything up. Now Luka had to deal with all the universes too, and she had so much more to do in her life than Miku - she was student council president, going to cram school, studying for entrance exams, maintaining good grades - for a normal student, all that would be a lot, but toss in dealing with universes too... "Um...is this...how is this? Do you regret this?"

"What do you mean?"

Miku hesitated for a moment, but continued. She had to ask. Now that the thought of it had occurred to her, guilt had already begun to twist in her gut. "Uh...like...all this started when I called you, right? If I didn't call you, I bet things would have kept on going the way they always did. Like, I would still be doing what I normally did, and you would still be doing what you normally did too, instead of spending all this time on these alternate universe things. I don't know," Miku suddenly broke off and stared down at her toenails, face red. "I just...I don't know."

There was a long pause that seemed to take forever before Luka finally spoke. "Do you regret this?"

Miku frowned. "Hey, I asked first."

"Well," said Luka, and she paused. "I don't regret answering my phone when you called. Otherwise, I wouldn't have met you."

Miku's eyes widened at that. Her face heated up. She couldn't quite say anything; she didn't expect Luka to say that, and the words spun and echoed in her head. Luka's voice was so clear and sincere.

"I mean," Luka continued, "sure, all this alternate universe stuff is complicated, but we're together, so it's not like we'll be fixing it on our own. If we started it, I'm sure we can end the universes...doing whatever they're doing, somehow."

Miku rubbed her eyes and smiled. Right, they weren't alone in this. They were together. "Y-yeah. You're right," she laughed, her laugh weak with relief and thankfulness.

"You okay?" asked Luka. "You sound a little shaky."

"I'm fine!" Miku said. For some reason, she couldn't stop smiling. "I, um...I just...I'm happy I met you too. This is all a lot to handle, but if I didn't call you, then...then I don't know. I never would have joined any clubs, and I wouldn't have learned anything about astronomy or anything, and...and I don't know. You're...you're really important to me." Miku hadn't really realized it until she said it, but it was true. Luka was important to her - really important. Somehow, Miku had managed to connect this strongly to someone she had never even seen.

"O-oh," Luka stuttered. "Th-thanks."

"Hey!" Miku mock-frowned, even though Luka couldn't see. "Geez, is that all you can say to that?"

"Ah! No, it's not! Sorry!" Luka sounded incredibly flustered. "It's just, I...um," she cleared her throat, and when she spoke, her voice was serious. "You're important to me too."

There was a pause, then Miku started to laugh.

"What? Why are you laughing?" Luka sounded worried. "Did I say something weird?"

"N-no, but you sounded really serious," said Miku, still laughing. "It's like you were declaring war on a neighboring country or something!"

Luka sighed. "Well, that didn't turn out how I wanted to go, then."

"I don't mind. It was cute," Miku said, grinning, then a thought occurred to her. "Oh! We can send pictures over the phone, right? Why don't you send me a picture of you? We need to swap pics! I can't believe we haven't done that yet!"

"Wow, now that you mention it...that's odd," said Luka. "Why haven't we sent each other our pictures before?"

"I know, right?" Miku shook her head. "Anyways, I'll just send you one now."

"Sounds good," said Luka. "Me too." With that, she hung up. Miku quickly ran over to her mirror to check her appearance. She frowned. She was dressed pretty sloppily, in pajamas, her hair messy and tangled. Maybe she should wear something different...and comb her hair and tie it back up in twin tails...

As she was pondering this, she was startled by her cellphone buzzing. Luka must have sent her her own picture already. Miku quickly grabbed her cellphone and flipped it open. Sure enough, there was a picture file.

Miku swallowed. She couldn't quite believe that this was going to be the first time she actually saw what Phone Luka looked like. Still...since Luka already sent Miku her picture, Miku shouldn't take too long on sending her own too. Miku looked around her room frantically for a comb, found one lying on her desk, hurriedly combed some of her overly-long hair, and took a picture of herself before sending it to Luka.

Then, she opened Luka's picture. She looked the same as the Luka here, more or less, but there were subtle differences, perhaps, in expression, that made all the difference. Luka was smiling, dressed in her pajamas as well, hair messy, but despite the imperfection, Miku found that it really only made her more endearing.

Miku swallowed hard. There was another realization dawning upon her, and this one was a simple one. It was as though the earlier realizations - not regretting this and Phone Luka being important to her - had been leading up to this one, like a series of logical steps pointing at one conclusion. It was as though her heart was laying it all out in terms that even a simpleton could understand, amazed that she had not realized it earlier. Miku loved Phone Luka.

Miku stared at the phone for a few more moments before she started to smile, and then she called Luka to tell her she got the photo. She would confess later - after all, she already poured her heart out to Luka tonight, and a confession like this should be saved for a later, more special time.

xxx

The next day, Miku left her house and met up with Rin and Len on the way to school. There was a determined step in her stride. After all, today was the day she could figure out with Phone Luka what's happening.

"You look energetic," said Rin, looking curiously at Miku. "Get a lot of sleep last night?"

Miku nodded. "Yeah, I slept a lot. How was band practice?"

Rin looked at Miku oddly. "Band practice?"

"Yeah," said Miku. "You and Len had band practice on Saturday, right?"

Rin was shaking her head. "Wow. Maybe you got a bit _too_ much sleep. We don't have band practice on Saturday!"

"Yeah...you know how undisciplined the school band club is," said Len with a frown. "I _wish_ we had band practice. That way, we would sound a lot better."

"No way," said Rin. "I like our school band the way it is now. Relaxed and comfortable! I think school puts way too much pressure on students nowadays. Anyways Miku, you've been to our practices! You know how they are."

Miku stared at Rin and Len, mind in a whirl. What? But...Miku was certain that they had practice on Saturday. What happened? Did the universe reset itself? That means that she definitely had to check the bakery again. Frowning, Miku took out her cellphone and texted Luka.

_rin and len had no practice on sat!_

"Whoa...Miku, you move fast," Rin said once Miku sent the text. She had on a mischievous grin, the kind Miku knew all too well from years of childhood spent with her.

"What do you mean?" Miku asked, with some trepidation.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about! I saw that phone wallpaper," said Rin, still grinning, arms folded.

At that, Miku's eyes widened and her cheeks heated up. Crap. She _did_ set Phone Luka's picture of herself as her phone wallpaper. Caught red-handed, Miku did nothing but stammer half-excuses.

"Wow, who knew that after only one date, you managed to get a picture of Luka? Although," Rin amended, "you could've just been a creeper and stole a picture of her and set it as your phone wallpaper."

"I didn't do that!" Miku protested.

"Then what happened? Come on, spill!"

Miku stalled, but thankfully was saved by the buzzing of her cellphone. Miku checked her text.

_Meiko didn't do her calculus homework. Are the universes going back to normal?_

Miku frowned and texted back.

_no way! thats too easy. i think its switching._

"Hey...stop texting Phone Luka and tell me what happened!" Rin said, scowling. "Aren't you curious too, Len?" She looked over at him.

Len blanched. "Me? I'm not curious! If Miku managed to get far enough with Luka to get a photo...that's good for her, right? That's all I need to know."

"Wow," said Rin, staring at Len. "Sometimes I wonder if you're really my twin brother. How can you _not_ be curious?"

"H-hey, look!" Len desperately checked his watch. "We're almost late for school! They'll be closing the gate soon!"

"What? Miku, you always slow us down! We gotta get a move on!" Rin cried, looking shocked, before her expression rapidly transitioned to one of annoyance, "...is what you thought I was going to say, right? I can't let go of something as juicy as this!"

Len looked helplessly at Miku, shrugging as if to say, "well, I tried."

Miku laughed nervously and without another word sprinted to school, leaving Rin and Len behind.

xxx

"Oi, Miku!" Gumi said cheerily at lunch, slapping Miku on the back as she passed her in the hallway. "How goes the article?"

"Th-the article?" Writing it seemed a long way away, like something from another past. Miku smiled weakly. "It's...uh, it's going."

"Well, don't worry too much about it," said Gumi with a grin. "First priority is winning over Luka! That, and getting me coffee."

Miku blinked. There it was, another contradiction from the phone call before, when Gumi told her that Miku was a member of the newspaper club first. Miku's brow furrowed. What was going on? Was the universe really going back to normal, as Phone Luka said?

"My first priority is...winning over Luka?" Miku ventured.

"That's right!" Gumi crossed her arms and nodded. "Though, Sonika will get really mad if I don't make you turn in the article _eventually._ That girl is way too strict..."

Miku laughed weakly. "When should I have it in by?"

"Didn't you already ask this when I called you about the date with Luka?" Gumi said, looking a little confused before shrugging and moving on. "Must've eaten too many veggie chips. The profiles are supposed to be in next week, but I'll give you an extension of four days."

Miku examined Gumi closely. She looked the same as she always was, but her words were directly contradicting her own from the phone call before.

"You'll give me an extension of four days?" asked Miku.

Gumi looked at her oddly. "Huh? No. The profiles are due next week. Why do you need an extension? I know you like Luka, Miku, but remember, your top priority as a newspaper club member is the newspaper club! Don't get too off-track!" Gumi grinned and slapped Miku on the back again, an action that did nothing to help Miku's now thoroughly scrambled mind. "Oh! Speaking of Luka," Gumi slapped her hands together. "Luka just told me that she forgot to ask you for your cellphone number, so...to help you out, I gave her your number a few minutes ago!"

Miku blinked. "Huh. Okay." Miku didn't see anything wrong with this Luka having her number too. She did have fun stargazing with her, after all. The stargazing trip had worried Miku so much back then...now, with all these universes messing up, the stargazing trip seemed trivial in comparison.

Gumi looked wounded. "Miku! I thought you would be more enthusiastic. After all, I gave her your number as a treat for being the best gofer in history of the newspaper club!"

"You mean the only gofer, right?"

"Same thing!"

Gumi was still talking about something or other, but Miku had begun to think. Gumi had contradicted herself several times, but gave no indication of realizing she was, so her memories were consistent with her own reality. Rin and Len's school band was how it was this morning, but who's to say that it didn't change ten or so times between now and then? What was happening to the universes? Were they stabilizing? Or were they changing even more?

It was enough to give Miku a headache.

"...so, have the article in in eleven days!" Gumi concluded.

xxx

After school, Miku bid goodbye to Rin and Len before leaving for the bakery. She had to see if it was the same as yesterday. On the way there, her cellphone buzzed with a text notification and Miku checked it. Probably this Luka, since Gumi had given her Miku's phone number.

Sure enough, the text was from Megurine Luka. Miku opened it.

_From: Megurine Luka  
To: Hatsune Miku  
_ _Hi, this is Luka. I'm texting you with my number._

Miku stared at the message, absorbed it, and was about to put her cellphone away, but...there was _something._ Something off.

Her brow furrowed. What was off? Nothing should be wrong, right? After all, Gumi had given this Luka Miku's phone number, so it was natural for this Luka to text her, but...there was something...not quite right.

It took Miku a while. The facts dropped slowly into her mind, one by one, like pebbles into a pond.

The message of the text said it was from Megurine Luka, but if it was this Luka's first time texting Miku, the text shouldn't say it was from Megurine Luka. It would have been an unknown number - it wouldn't have been associated with a name at all. Except, the text _did_ say that it was from Megurine Luka, but this Luka had never texted Miku before.

One Luka, however, _had_ texted Miku before, and that Luka was saved as Megurine Luka in Miku's cellphone - in other words, the same name the text was sent with.

Miku's steps slowed, the realization dawning in her mind, great and large and overwhelming.

"No," she whispered, staring at her cellphone. She could barely see the text - her cellphone was shaking wildly. Miku grabbed her trembling arm with her other arm and squeezed in a futile attempt to make it stop shaking.

_Don't panic,_ she thought to herself, wildly. _Don't panic._ Phone Luka didn't panic like Miku did when the bakeries changed, right? She was calm...calmer than Miku. Right. There was an explanation, there was no way this meant what Miku thought it meant. They could laugh about it later, but for now...don't panic. _Don't panic._

Miku took a deep breath, a sucked lungful of air, and called Phone Luka using the number saved in her phone. Each ring seemed to take an eternity. Miku counted. One. Two. Three.

"Hello?" answered Luka.

"Luka?" said Miku, cautiously. "This is...this is Miku."

She waited. Her heart was beating wildly, and Miku was beginning to feel a little dizzy.

"Ah," said Luka, finally. "You got my text then? Gumi gave me your number, so I was worried that I might have messed up the numbers. Glad to hear it got through."

Those words, so innocuous, were as heavy as the world.

Miku's head went blank. She couldn't remember saying anything. She couldn't remember hanging up. She couldn't remember putting her cellphone back in her pocket. She couldn't remember walking to Panya, which was Zaiya, which was Panya. All she could remember was the sound of Luka's voice on the phone, and the realization that it was the wrong Luka.


	11. Chapter 11

"School band is such a pain," Rin complained. "Seriously, why do we need to practice so much? I thought it was a relaxing club!"

"Yeah," Miku said. Her eyes were dully focused on her picked-apart lunch. "Sounds like a hassle."

"Hm," Rin frowned, looking over at Miku. "You've been really quiet lately. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Miku.

"If you say so..." Rin looked rather skeptical. "Don't you think she's been acting weird, Len?"

"Huh?" Len looked up from his food. "Well, now that you mention it, she has been a lot quieter lately. What's wrong, Miku? You can tell us."

Miku glanced up at Rin and Len. Sure, she could tell them, but where would she even start? There were so many things going wrong, and Rin and Len were affected by whatever's happening to the two universes too. If Miku was to tell them about the universes mixing up, they'd definitely think she was crazy, because their minds would be adjusted to...whatever version of the universe they were in. They wouldn't even remember the contradictions they made, so...what was the point? There was no way for Miku to prove her own words.

Plus, Phone Luka was...gone. Miku's heart clenched at the thought. She was completely alone in this now. Funny how she only lost her after she realized what she felt for her. Miku sighed and stared at her lunch, thinking. She could tell them about Phone Luka, she supposed.

"Well," said Miku, "I can't talk to Phone Luka anymore."

"Huh?" Rin said. "Why not?"

Miku sighed. "I got this Luka's phone number. I think it...overwrote whatever it was that let me talk to Phone Luka." Miku's voice was flat, disconnected. "She's gone now."

"Well..." said Len, cautiously, "that's what you wanted, right? Luka's phone number. Remember when you first talked to Phone Luka? You were going to work with her so that you could win over the Luka here. Now that you did, you don't need Phone Luka's help anymore. It makes sense, right?"

Miku stared at Len. What he was saying was so wrong Miku didn't even know where to begin. Not needing Phone Luka anymore? That was ridiculous. Miku needed her more than ever right now. Without her, Miku felt as though she was cut off. How could she face the insanity that was her life now? What could Miku do?

The worst part was that Miku knew full well that, if she had lost Phone Luka earlier, Miku would have been...okay. Sure, she would be sad that she couldn't talk to Phone Luka anymore, but she would have gotten Luka's phone number in the bargain, and a closer relationship with her to boot. However, now, things were _different._ Miku didn't love this Luka anymore, and she was in love with Phone Luka. Everything was reversed. The pain of heartache mixed with the fear and confusion, leaving Miku a wreck.

She couldn't tell Len that, though. Miku looked away. "I guess so," she said, quietly.

xxx

Life continued, Miku drifting along with it. Though she still tried to figure out what was going on with the two universes, she did so half-heartedly. After all, how could she possibly fix this on her own? How could she possibly do all this without Phone Luka? Miku could hardly bear to open her cellphone anymore, because Phone Luka was still her wallpaper. Just the sight of her, innocently smiling like that, unaware of what was about to happen, was enough to make Miku want to break down.

It wasn't fair. Why was it that when Miku realized what she felt for Luka, she lost her? It was like some sort of terrible, cosmic joke.

Day by day, Miku watched as the universe changed and shifted, her classmates contradicting themselves multiple times, sometimes even in the same sentence. It was as though the world was glitching up, and the worst part was that no one other than Miku saw it, and now Miku was completely cut off from the only other person who could help her figure things out.

Miku kept an especially close watch on the Luka here as well, but the Luka here acted the same as she always did. Miku wasn't too sure why, when everyone else was changing. Maybe it was because of the unique situation Phone Luka was in, as well as Miku. Maybe the Miku in the other universe was the same as the Luka here, in that her personality was constant too. Miku didn't know, however. With only herself to bounce ideas off of, Miku was lost.

Occasionally, she would walk over to the bakery and look at it. It was still a blurred indistinct smear of a building, but everyone else acted as though it was a completely normal one.

Miku had tried to go inside once. She walked up to the doors, opened it, and stepped inside, but the inside was a confused mess, flickering between interiors like a sort of crazy seizure-inducing cartoon. Miku could hardly get out fast enough.

At home, Miku obsessively played Just Be Friends over and over. It was the only way she could hear Phone Luka's voice again, after all - that, and the part to the duet that Phone Luka sent her too. Miku listened to it, once, but the emptiness of it - the fact that it promised a future that neither of them had the chance to have, the fact that there was a blank space in the song left for Miku's voice to fill - was too much. After listening to it, Miku had spent the rest of the night huddled up in her bed, shaking with the force of suppressed sobs, cellphone clutched tightly in her hands.

She was completely alone in this disintegrating world and cut off completely from the one she loved, other than the mocking existence of her voice in the form of mp3 files, but that was no comparison to actually talking to the girl herself.

In an attempt to distract herself, Miku poured effort into finishing the newspaper article and studying. Sonika was amazed by the improvement when Miku handed her the finished article four days early, and Rin had begun to ask Miku to help her with some of her homework. Still, a part of Miku felt oddly disconnected from all this. It was as though she was a ghost, standing back and watching her body mechanically go through the motions. Life was a simple thing once you got right down to it, really - people followed patterns in what they did. They sleep, wake up, eat, fill their days with school or work, and sleep again. Each day was the same as the other, a simple machine. Pull the lever, push a button. Life continued running on like clockwork, perversely normal despite the chaos of the universe.

It got so that Miku began to care less and less about the disintegration of the universe. Her friends would contradict themselves, and Miku would roll right along with it as though she never noticed the contradictions herself. Minute cracks began to appear in buildings and on the sidewalk, and while Miku wasn't sure if that was due to the universes or if it was because of something else, she didn't care too much. There was, after all, nothing she could do about it.

She was only a teenage girl, and that was nothing against the forces of the universe.

xxx

It was a perfectly ordinary day, if life could be called 'ordinary' now. Miku went to school, took notes in class, ate lunch with Rin and Len, and went to newspaper club. She had to work on a new article now, something simple about the new physics teacher, so she had to gather information about it. For a while, Miku went around the school talking with students and teachers about the new teacher before writing up a short outline of the article. She did all of this automatically, mind divorced from reality.

She left school after that, walking outside. The sun was starting to set, so Miku quickened her pace. She didn't want to leave school too late; she still had some homework to do.

On the way back home, near the railroad crossing, Miku kept her eyes dully focused ahead. Along the way, Luka passed her, and Miku didn't do much but nod in her general direction by way of greeting. Luka seemed intent on a book, however, apparently not noticing Miku, and walked on.

Miku was about to let the incident pass when something strange about Luka sank into her head.

Namely, her school uniform was different.

For a long moment, Miku was puzzled. Why was Luka's school uniform different from Miku's? Miku had seen her earlier that day, after all - she was wearing the same uniform Miku was wearing right now, and it made no sense for her to change her uniform to that of some other school in the first place. Plus, the uniform Luka was wearing looked completely unfamiliar too, not like any other school Miku knew at any rate. That made no sense at all, unless...

Miku's eyes widened as the realization hit her with a force so great it knocked her fully into consciousness. All of a sudden, Miku became intensely aware of her heartbeat, the street, the sounds of people walking and cars thrumming by. Life exploded around her in vivid color.

Luka was on the other side of the crossing now, head down as she focused on her book. Miku gathered up a lungful of air.

 _"Luka!"_ Miku shouted, so loudly it startled the birds on the street into flying away.

Luka stopped walking, and began to turn around to face Miku. Miku's heart beat frantically. It was her - it was Phone Luka. There was no other explanation - it _had_ to be her. The girl Miku loved, the girl she thought she had lost forever, and oh god she couldn't lose her again, Miku hadn't even told her she loved her yet and there was no way Miku could lose her again, not now, not if she could do something about it.

Bells began to ring, lights flashed, and the gates of the train crossing began to lower. A train was coming.

Miku didn't wait. She sprinted across the crossing and practically tackled Luka, who gave out a surprised gasp, almost falling over with the force of Miku's tackle. Miku hugged her tightly, burying her head in Luka's chest. She felt so _real_ in her arms that Miku could hardly believe it. Her head was dizzy with Luka - her warmth, her scent, everything about her. Miku didn't even know she was crying until she began to speak, her words choked and nearly unintelligible.

"Luka, I...I thought I lost you," Miku sobbed. "I didn't even get to...I didn't..."

"Miku?" Luka's voice was cautiously unbelieving as she hugged Miku back. "Are you...Phone Miku?"

For some reason, Phone Luka calling her Phone Miku seemed strangely funny. Miku snorted out a half-laugh, mixed in with her crying. "Y-yeah," she said.

Suddenly, Luka's hold on Miku tightened and Luka buried her head in Miku's shoulder. "Thank god," she said, quietly. "I thought...I thought the connection was completely cut off."

"Gumi gave this Luka my phone number," Miku said. "I think that's why...it just cut off the connection when she did that."

Luka laughed quietly. "I thought it might've been something like that."

Miku could've stayed there forever in Luka's embrace, but the ground underneath them began to tremble, and then to shake. Quickly springing apart, Miku and Luka stared down at the ground. There were cracks appearing, larger ones than the minute cracks Miku had half-heartedly noted before. Miku looked up at Luka, opening her mouth to say something, only to discover to her horror that Luka was...flickering. It was as though she was going in and out of existence. Judging from the stricken expression on Luka's face, it seemed like something of a similar sort was happening to Miku.

"No!" Miku shouted, and instinctively reached out to grab Luka's hand. Instantly Luka stopped flickering, and at the same time, the ground began to shake even more, more and more cracks spiderwebbing out from under their feet. Miku held onto Luka's hand tightly despite that. She wouldn't let go of Luka now - never.

"What's happening?" Miku asked, her breaths fast.

Luka stared down at the ground. "I think...I think it's...reacting to us."

Miku could figure out that much herself. "But why?"

"I think it's because-ah!" Luka quickly pulled Miku towards her and backed away. Miku almost fell on Luka before she regained her balance, stumbling away from the cracks. The ground had completely given out where they were standing before, revealing a white light so blinding it pierced Miku's eyes. She looked away, blinking rapidly as lights flashed in front of her eyes as Luka continued from where she broke off before. "I think...it's because we're from different universes, so we can't coexist in the same one."

The flashing lights had managed to leave Miku's eyes long enough for her to notice that the cracks were beginning to make their way over to them. "It's...it's _following us,"_ Miku said, her voice thin with disbelief. "Luka, the cracks are..."

"I know," Luka interrupted, and hurriedly she began to run, pulling Miku along with her. Miku shot glances behind as she ran, almost tripping over several times. More and more cracks were appearing, larger and larger, and they seemed to be gaining on them. Miku wanted to warn the people she saw walking around about this, but to her amazement, none of them seemed to notice - they only placidly walked on, as though they didn't even see it. To Miku's horror, the buildings around them began to look strange too, all smeared and indistinct, like the bakery.

"How do we stop this?" Miku shouted as they ran.

"I don't know!" Luka shouted back. "I think if we let go-"

"No!" Miku's grip on Luka tightened. "I'm not letting go of you again!"

Luka was silent for a while before she answered. "Me neither."

It seemed as though they were running forever from the cracks that were pursuing them. Miku didn't dare to look behind her now - she could sense the intense light. If she looked back, she would be completely blinded. The holes in the ground sending out the light seemed to block out everything, the light eventually growing so strong that Miku couldn't even see straight anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut to block it out and ran blindly, hand holding onto Luka's all the way. She wouldn't let go. She wouldn't, she wouldn't, she wouldn't-

Then, she felt Luka fall in front of her, and before Miku could react, instead of touching ground, her foot touched nothing but air and she was falling too. Her stomach and heart lurched. The light grew stronger - it was as though it was trying to force its way through her eyelids. Still, Miku kept her hold on Luka.

They fell for what seemed like forever until the light suddenly faded and Miku and Luka's descent slowed until their feet touched solid ground. Slowly, Miku opened her eyes and loosened her previously vise-like grip on Luka's hand.

To her surprise, they were standing at the crosswalk near Miku's house. Miku looked around. Everything looked normal - the sky was orange with the sunset and there were no strange, blurry houses. With some trepidation, Miku looked down at her feet. No cracks.

Luka was looking around. "Where are we?"

"We're at a crosswalk near my house..." said Miku, slowly.

"I didn't know that falling through the street led here," said Luka.

Miku laughed weakly. "Me neither." She looked around some more before speaking. "There aren't any cars or people..."

Luka had a slight frown on her lips. "That's...not natural. Did we...break the universe?"

Miku couldn't help but to smile at that. Luka sounded like a kid who was scared that she had broken one of her parents' things. "I don't _think_ so, but...there _were_ the cracks, and the yellow light, and the falling..." Miku trailed off before she started speaking again. "St-still, I don't regret it. When I lost you, it was like...everything was dead. I was alone, and scared, and I..." Miku fell silent. Right - she hadn't confessed to Luka yet. It was a bit of an odd time to confess, but Miku thought that she should do so now before something crazy happened again. Luka was looking at her and Miku felt herself start to blush. Silly how Miku suddenly felt shy about confessing after everything, but she supposed some things never changed.

Miku swallowed and gathered up her courage. "I...um...remember that conversation we had? Our...our last one over the phone?"

Luka nodded. "Yes, I remember."

"Yeah...remember when I told you that, uh, you were...important to me?"

Luka blinked. "Of course I remember, Miku."

"Well..." Miku wasn't exactly sure how to go about this. "Uh...it turns out that I, well, you're not just...I love you!" Miku blurted out, mouth moving faster than brain, and when her brain caught up, her face turned red. Crap, she really did just say that. Now that it had been said, Miku almost felt too embarrassed to even be touching Luka's hand. Although, if she let go, Luka might disappear, so Miku kept holding on to it.

There was a long pause, and then Luka started to laugh. Surprised, Miku jerked her head up to stare at her. Luka looked as though Miku had just told her the funniest joke in her life.

"Wh-what? Why are you laughing?" Miku asked, frantically.

"I'm sorry," said Luka between giggles. "You just...sounded so serious."

Miku scowled. "W-would you please answer my confession?"

"I love you too, Miku," said Luka, smiling, and before Miku could voice the swelling happiness in her chest, Luka continued, her smile growing a little more mischievous. "You know, in our last phone conversation, before you started laughing at me, I was going to confess too."

Miku's eyes widened. At that moment she wanted to do nothing more than to go back in time and punch herself in the face for ruining the mood. "Huh? Y-you were?"

Luka nodded. "Yeah. It didn't turn out how I wanted it to go, though. I thought that I could confess later...but then the connection got cut off."

"I was going to confess later too," Miku admitted. "I thought that since we already poured out our feelings to each other that day, I could save it for another day, but...then _that_ happened."

Luka's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, so we could have _both_ confessed to each other that time?"

"I guess so," said Miku.

Luka's lips twitched upwards in a smile. "I guess we're both sort of idiots then."

"Indeed you are," said a new voice, and spinning Miku and Luka turned to face the source of it. Coming towards them was a woman whose face was deeply lined with wrinkles, her hair white and piled in a neat bun. She had on a scowl, and looked, for all intents and purposes, like a reproving grandmother.

Miku's eyes widened as she recognized her - the old woman who asked her about her wish so long ago. She had completely forgotten her, until now. "Wait, you're...I know you!"

"I should hope so," said the old woman. "I was the one who gave you her phone number." She nodded in the direction of Luka, who looked baffled. "I came here to apologize to you two."

"Apologize?" Miku echoed.

"Yes. You see, back then, I gave you the wrong phone number," the old woman explained, looking vaguely regretful. "Instead of giving you the number for the Luka here, I gave you the number for the Luka in another universe."

Luka's eyebrows furrowed. "So you're the one that caused all this? What's happening to the universe?"

"There are an infinite number of universes," the old woman said, her voice sounding tired, as though she had explained this many times before, "but the point is that they can never touch or interact. If they do, then all sorts of things start to happen. In order to correct the confusion, the universes try to merge...but that never works. It's like mashing together two pieces of a different puzzle. So you end up with people's memories flickering between universes, places changing, and in the final stages, both of the universes falling apart. Thankfully, most people don't notice until the end because the universe stays consistent with their own perception of reality, but with most of the distortions localized around you, since you are the cause of the universes breaking apart-"

"So what?" Miku interrupted. "How do we fix it?"

The old woman looked at her in faint surprise. "I would imagine that that would be simple. All I have to do is to reset the universes."

"Reset...?" Miku didn't quite like the sound of that.

"Yes," said the old woman. "Reset them back to normal, go back to the beginning, without all the universes crossing over." She checked her watch. "It should happen now. I can't delay much longer, I'm sorry. I've gotten in enough trouble with my superiors already."

Miku's eyes widened, the words echoing in her head.

Reset.

Go back to the beginning.

Without the universes...

But then that would mean that she would lose Phone Luka again, and that...and that couldn't happen. They couldn't have gotten so far only to be stopped here. Did they find each other only to lose each other in the end? No. That can't be. The unfairness of it all was enough to make Miku want to scream.

"We can't fix it without resetting?" Miku asked, trying desperately to keep her voice calm, but it shook with anxiety nonetheless. "There's no way?"

The old woman glanced at her. "I'm sorry. There is no way." A flash of regret passed over her face before she approached Miku and put her withered hand on Miku's head. Against her will, Miku began to feel her head fill with white. She struggled against it. There was no way she was just going to give up and forget and lose Luka all over again, there was no way...

...but the whiteness was in her eyes now, and her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. Miku was fading fast no matter how hard she fought, and for a moment she thought she caught a glimpse of the old woman and Luka before she fell into the white around her, except the old woman didn't look so old anymore - she was flickering between forms like the bakery, old and young superimposed, and Luka was saying something.

Miku couldn't hear anymore, however, and after that brief moment of clarity, there was nothing but absolute, all-swallowing white.

xxx

Her alarm clock blared, piercing through her ears, and Miku got up, head bleary as she shut it off. Running a hand through her tangled hair, she stared at the clock. 7 in the morning, April 22nd. With a groan, she buried her head in her pillow. She felt fuzzy and lethargic, her limbs leaden, as though she slept too much. Still, she had to get up for school, so sighing she got up from bed and began her morning routine.

On the way to school, Miku checked her watch. It was 7:50. She had ten minutes to make it to school. Right then. Miku sped up her pace - her school was a bit of a walk. At the crosswalk near her house, she waited impatiently with a man reading a newspaper and a quiet old woman for the light to turn green. After a few long seconds, it did, and Miku hurried down to school. Her head felt odd and strange and wincing Miku rubbed her forehead with her fingers. Did something happen? Miku certainly couldn't remember anything...then, she saw Rin and Len in front of her and sped up her pace to catch up with them, greeting them with a brief smile and wave.

"Wow, you're running pretty late, aren't you?" Rin said with a laugh.

Miku frowned at her. "I'm not late! School hasn't started yet."

"Yeah, sure," Rin said. She was saying something else too, but all of a sudden, Miku wasn't paying attention to what Rin was saying anymore, because Luka was standing outside the school gate. She looked up as Miku neared, and smiled.

For some reason, Miku's head felt hot and her heart started to pound. There was Luka, but...what was special about that?

Luka, still smiling, raised her cellphone in an almost casual gesture.

That was when it hit Miku with all the force of a wrecking ball. As though the cellphone was a key, memories flooded into Miku's brain, nearly overloading her senses. Universes, Panya, Zaiya, the school band, the newspaper club, Gumi's obsession with coffee, all of that swirled in Miku's head, but the memories that stood above all of them were her conversations with Phone Luka. Somehow, Miku knew without a doubt that the Luka before her was _her._

Before she knew it she was running towards her, heedless of Rin's surprised shout. Miku didn't see anything, she didn't see anyone other than Luka. Her heart was beating joyfully in her chest, almost as though it wanted to burst out, and Miku practically tackled Luka as she hugged her.

"I couldn't...I thought it was...I couldn't remember..." Miku said all in a rush, words running over each other in their haste to get out, before she decided that it didn't matter. Words didn't matter, because she could do something else much, much simpler instead.

Without another word, Miku grabbed Luka by her school tie, pulling her head down. Luka's eyes widened in confusion before Miku threw her arms around her and kissed her.

From a distance, Len and Rin stared. Rin rubbed her eyes and gaped. Len, for his part, quickly looked away, face red.

"Wh-when did..." Rin stammered. "I... _what?"_

Len coughed into his fist. "Um...I think we should get to school. Come on, Rin." He grabbed his sister by her arm and started to drag her over through the school gate.

When Miku and Luka parted, Rin and Len had gone. Miku grinned at Luka, relief rising in her chest. She wasn't gone. She was here, with Miku. Miku could hardly believe it.

"What happened?" she asked. "How did you..."

Luka laughed. "I switched places. It's fine, because the memories of the other Luka is consistent with the other universe. It took some time, but I think it's all okay now."

"Wow. That sounds complicated. Did you do a lot of things while I was out or something?" Miku asked, blinking.

"Something like that," said Luka, "but that's another story."

Miku grinned. "Sounds like a big story."

"Big? It's nothing compared to our duet," Luka said. "I thought of a title for it, by the way."

"What is it?"

"World End Dancehall."

"...huh. I thought it would have something to do with magnets."

Luka laughed. "You can write that song, then."

Miku smiled. Sure, she could, she thought. Why not? The future stretched out before them, limitless in possibility. Their story, really, was only beginning.

They had time enough for all the duets in the world.

 

 

 

_end_


End file.
